MARRIAGE LAW IN DUŠAN'S LEGISLATION

Abstract

In the paper, the author provides an overview of the matrimonial law in the medieval Serbian state with a special reference to the same material in Dušan's legislation. This important branch of civil law at the time of Emperor Dušan is contained in an abbreviated Serbian-Greek collection of civil and ecclesiastical regulations called the Abbreviated Syntagma of Matija Vlastar. A third of the content of this collection is precisely the provisions of marriage law. Serbian editors, when shortening the Syntagma, intervened the least on the issue of marriage law. This collection of regulations was created as a practical manual for imperial judges in Dušan's empire.
In addition to Matija Vlastar's Abbreviated Syntagma and the so-called Justinian's Law, as the pinnacle of the legislative work of Emperor Dušan, comes his Code, which with its provisions follows the Byzantine legal tradition, but also fills legal gaps.
These three legal collections make up what is today called Dušan's legislation in science.
Marriage law in the Serbian medieval state, as in other Christian states, was under the jurisdiction of the church, and for that reason, law collections were applied that had both civil and church regulations. In the Byzantine legal tradition, these collections were called Nomokanons.