PROTECTION OF GRAVES IN MEDIEVAL SERBIAN LAW, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO ART. 20 OF DUŠAN'S CODE

Abstract

The protection of graves, as places of final repose, has been present since the earliest times. In Roman law, particularly severe penalties were prescribed against desecration of grave sites. This regulation stayed similar in Rhomaian law - Christian influences on law led to stronger protection of the deceased's peace, as well as the properietal inviolability of grave sites. Such norms will also be transplanted into Serbian law, through the Zakonopravilo of Saint Sava and Emperor Dušan's legislation.

In earlier academic pursuits, the norm of Article 20 of Dušan's Code has been analyzed in the context of the fight against superstitions and "folk religion", and viewed as logically situated in the part of the Code that governs church regulations and state-church relations. However, in domestic historiography, there exists also the view that it was merely a reception from the Rhomaian model - specifically, of the rules on grave violators, which are found in the Abbreviated Syntagma of Mattheas Blastares (chapter T2, taken from chapter T10 of the Full Syntagma).

Through linguistic analysis, bringing the norm into connection with earlier legal monuments, normative observation of the structure of the norm (dispositions and sanctions), and through the objective interpretation of the rules from Article 20 of the Code and comparison with its alleged model, the paper aims to show that this law norm is an (almost) purely domestic, and that it was created under the influence of the struggle of the state and the church against ancient, non-Orthodox beliefs.