Constitutional norms in Serbian medieval law

Serbian medieval law had no documents such as Magna Carta of 1215 in England and Bulla Aurea of 1222 in Hungary, but some provisions from the codification of Stefan Dušan contain the ideas which even today would have belonged to a constitution. Those ideas penetrated in medieval Serbia under the strong influence of Byzantine law. The fragments of Dušan’s Codex Tripartitus (Syntagma of Matheas Blastares, so-called „Justinian’s Law“ and Dušan’s Law Code) which, from the modern constitutional-legal view, are of the utmost validity are: 1) Chapter B – 5 of the Syntagma of Matheas Blastares, translated and accepted in Serbia from Byzantium precisely in Dušan’s time, entitled On Emperor, which expresses solemn ideas about the Emperor’s rule. 2) Articles of Dušan’s Law Code, which restrict the prerogatives of the Tsar as a supreme organ of power, and put the law above Emperor, are 171, 172, and 105, which is connected with them. Although the provisions of these articles are relevant for the judiciary, they are, from constitutional-
legal aspect, of great importance.

Keywords: Dušan’s Law Code, Syntagma of Matheas Blastares, Byzantine law, constitution, law, Emperor (Tsar)