ЈУГОСЛОВЕНСКИ ГРАЂАНСКИ ЗАКОНИК (Аустријски или Црногорски законик?)
THE YUGOSLAV CIVIL CODE (Austrian or Montenegrian Civil Code)

Summary/Abstract: In this article, which is devoted to the codification of civil law in Yugoslavia between the two World War's the author emphatically reacts the point of view according to which the Austrian Civil Code should be considered as the basis of the Yugoslav Civil Code. This would predominantly be a national and political error. Yugoslavia should have a Yugoslav civil code, which would comply with the needs of the Yugoslav circumstances. It is not convenient to incorporate the spirit of a deposed order into a new, revolutionary one, such as had been the newly formed state. Victorious Rome had a bad experience with defeated Greece. Likewise, Austrian literature and the practice of Austrian courts would be of little and to the implementation of the code in Yugoslavia, since the language is alien to the majority of the judges. Next, court practice is valid only if it is formed gradually and with regard to the domestic circumstances and needs. Foreign practice, and literature, if the intention is to take them as an example provoke sterility in the work of the imitator, instead of helping him. If the Austrian Code were to be adopted, there lurks the dangerous possibility of a split between Yugoslav theory and practice, for it is reasonable to assume that the courts would interpret the law independently, while theory would for long still remain deprived of this independence, that is, under the influence of Austrian theory. According to the author Bogišić’s General Property Code for Montenegro, with several necessary alterations, could be spread to the whole country. That Code, the pride of the creator as well as his people, is one of the best in the world; foreign jurists have also considered it among the best. This Code stresses the author, has been created by our own compatriot, who had excellent know-how, for the benefit of a part of our people the spirit of which is much closer to the wast majority of our people than the Austrian. The fact that the Montenegrian community is primitive does not mean that the Montenegrian Code would be unsuitable for the rest, culturally more developed regions of Yugoslavia, for this Code is more progressive than the Austrian Civil Code.

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