Forvm Romanvm: Ass. Dr Uroš Stanković speaks of Jovan Hadžić’s legislative work

Forvm Romanvm: Ass. Dr Uroš Stanković speaks of Jovan Hadžić’s legislative work

The last lecture in the cycle dedicated to the anniversary of the Serbian Civil Code and Jovan Hadžić was held on the 13th of December 2019 by Ass. Dr Uroš Stanković of the University of Novi Sad Faculty of Law. The subject of his lecture was „The Legislative Work of Jovan Hadžić in the Principality of Serbia between 1837 and 1845“. Sharing with us the results of his archival research, some of which has not even been published yet, Dr Stanković demonstrated that the span of laws Hadžić was hired to work on was even wider than previously thought. Apart from the Civil Code, which brought him fame, and several laws dealing with the organization of central state bodies, that experts know he was involved with, Hadžić was also involved with creating the laws on courts, the army, ecclesiastical authority, and he was even engaged to work on the Penal Code around the time his stay in Serbia was coming to a close. There was even an idea to put him in charge of writing a commentary on the Civil Code, along with procedural laws and their commentaries – but sadly, all of these endeavours came to nothing when Hadžić was dismissed from public service after his fall out with Toma Vučić Perišić. The lecture was exceptionally interesting, rich with details from the lives of the participants in these events, as evident from their correspondence.