Janus-arcú szuverenitás. A kora újkori Raguzai Köztársaság nemzetközi státusza
Janus-Faced Sovereignty: The International Status of the Ragusan Republic in the Early Modern Period

Summary/Abstract: The article investigates the consequences of being an Ottoman tributary state for the legal status and claims to independence of the early modern Ragusan Republic. The first part of the study addresses the obligations and privileges of Ragusa according to Ottoman documents and the amount of self-governance that the city enjoyed as a consequence. The second part reconstructs the peculiar interpretation of tributary status promoted by the Ragusan government and contrasts it with the very different Ottoman understanding. The third part considers the claims to “objectivity” of these two irreconcilable interpretations within their proper historical context – the interaction of two mutually alien legal cultures, Ottoman and Ragusan – which results in a somewhat heterodox interpretation of Ragusan legal status. More precisely, this discussion suggests that the usual dichotomy between the two interpretations of Ragusan status – the claim that it was an independent state and that it was a part of the Ottoman Empire – is profoundly anachronistic. The study is concluded with general reflections on the use of international law and inter-state treaties across the cultural border between Islam and Christianity in the early modern period.

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