О ПРАВНОМ ПОЛОЖАЈУ СРБА У ЈУЖНОЈ УГАРСКОЈ ‒ СТВАРНОСТ, ЖЕЉЕ И КОНТРОВЕРЗЕ
ON THE LEGAL POSITION OF SERBS IN THE SOUTH HUNGARY – REALITY, ASPIRATIONS AND CONTROVERSE

Summary/Abstract: This paper presents an overview of the most important elements in the legal position of Serbs in the South Hungary, from the time of the Great Migrations in 1690 to 1918. Most of the time, Serbs had a personal autonomy, based on privileges given by the emperor. These privileges got limited and narrowed over time, thus leading to the requests for the territorial autonomy on the political gatherings such as Temeswar convocation, May assembly and Annunciation Day convocation. In connection with the Migrations, privileges and the nature of the legal frames that ascertained the Serbs’ status, there were, among the participants of the Serbian public and political life and among the scientists, different opinions on certain basic questions: the number of Serbs that came during the Great migrations, the nature of the Migrations, their consequences and the nature of the emperor’s privileges that regulated the position of Serbs. Estimates on the number of the participants in Serbia were very different. The question whether the privileges had a form of contract also brought disagreements, and the equable attitudes on the state-legal nature of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeswar (1849–1860) do not exist in the contemporary historiography either, although it is a period of time where the lack of historical sources can not be an excuse. The author is of the opinion that its characterization as a crown province cannot be accepted as a conclusion, because the Austrian legal-historical sources contain enough evidence on this matter.

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