Patrimonijalni crkveni sud u Dušanovom zakoniku

Abstract

In medieval Serbia, in addition to administrative and economic immunity, the Church also enjoyed judicial immunity. It had the right to judge the clergy (class court), all Orthodox believers in certain civil and criminal matters, but like any feudal lord, it also had jurisdiction over the inhabitants of church and monastery estates (church people), judging them as a patrimonial court. The subject of the research is the ecclesiastical patrimonial court in Serbian medieval law. First, a legal-historical analysis of this institute from monastery charters will be performed and then from the most valuable Serbian medieval legal monument, Dušan's Code. The basic question is whether the Code only confirmed the existing jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical patrimonial court or whether it introduced certain changes in this area. If there were any changes, it is important to recognize what they were, what they consist of and what the basic motive of the legislator for prescribing them was. The ecclesiastical patrimonial court was without a doubt competent for internal disputes between people of the same monastery, but it should be determined how the jurisdiction in the, so-called, mixed disputes was determined. Further, did Dušan's Code give over jurisdiction to the Church regarding disputes that were otherwise the domain of the ruler's court? Finally, the role and importance of the procedural institutions of appeal, transference and supplication in Serbian medieval law are emphasized.