Zbornik Matice srpske za drustvene nauke 2016 Issue 159-160, Pages: 815-829
https://doi.org/10.2298/ZMSDN1660815A
Full text ( 331 KB)
The concept of statutory law in the work of Božidar Grujović
Aličić Samir (State University of Novi Pazar, Department of Law, Novi Pazar)
In Slovo, a speech that Božidar Grujović (Teodor Filipović) prepared for the
occasion of the foundation of the Governmental Council of Serbia
(Praviteljstvujušči sovjet srpski) in 1805, there is a definition of the
concept of “statutory law” (zakon), according to which it has the following
characteristics: it is the expression of the popular will; it applies equally
to all citizens; it has rational and ethical characteristics because it
requires good deeds and prevents the bad ones. Such a concept of statutory
law significantly differs from the positivist conception, dominant in the
contemporary Serbian law. In this article, the author analyzes the legal and
political ideas of Božidar Grujović with the aim to show that his ideas
derive from the Roman law, and that they are received, indirectly, by
Rousseau and the ideologues of the French Revolution. Contrary to the
dominant theory in today’s science, the author believes that the direct model
for the ideas of Grujović is not to be sought in the Declaration of the
Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, but in the Montagnard Constitution
and the Declaration of the Rights of 1793.
Keywords: Božidar Grujović, philosophy of law, political theories, First Serbian Uprising, French Revolution, Roman law