Dušan's Code
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Dušan's Code ( sr-cyr, Душанов законик, ''Dušanov zakonik'', known historically as ''Закон благовјернаго цара Стефана'' – Law of the pious Emperor Stefan) is a compilation of several legal systems that was enacted by
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...
in 1349. It was used in the
Serbian Empire The Serbian Empire ( sr, / , ) was a medieval Serbian state that emerged from the Kingdom of Serbia. It was established in 1346 by Dušan the Mighty, who significantly expanded the state. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the major power in the ...
and the succeeding
Serbian Despotate The Serbian Despotate ( sr, / ) was a medieval Serbian state in the first half of the 15th century. Although the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 is generally considered the end of medieval Serbia, the Despotate, a successor of the Serbian Empire and ...
. It is considered an early
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...
, or close to it; an advanced set of laws which regulated all aspects of life.


Background

On 16 April 1346 (
Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...
), Dušan convoked a huge assembly at
Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and List of cities in North Macedonia by population, largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Sk ...
, attended by the Serbian Archbishop
Joanikije II Joanikije ( sr-cyr, Јоаникије) is the Serbian variant of Greek name '' Ioannikios''. It may refer to: *Joanikije I, Serbian Archbishop (1272–76) * Joanikije II, Serbian Archbishop (1338–46) and first Serbian Patriarch (1346–54) * Joa ...
, the
Archbishop of Ochrid The Archbishop of Ohrid is a historic title given to the primate of the Archbishopric of Ohrid. The whole original title of the primate was Archbishop of Justiniana Prima and all Bulgaria ( gr, ἀρχιεπίσκοπὴ τῆς Πρώτης Ἰο ...
Nikolaj I, the
Bulgarian Patriarch The Patriarch of All Bulgaria is the patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The patriarch is officially styled as ''Patriarch of All Bulgaria and Metropolitan of Sofia''. Patriarch Neophyte acceded to this position on 24 February 2013. Hist ...
Simeon and various religious leaders of Mount Athos. The assembly and clerics agreed on, and then ceremonially performed the raising of the autocephalous Serbian Archbishopric to the status of Serbian Patriarchate. The Archbishop from then on was titled
Serbian Patriarch This article lists the heads of the Serbian Orthodox Church, since the establishment of the church as an autocephalous archbishopric in 1219 to today's patriarchate. The list includes all the archbishops and patriarchs that led the Serbian Ortho ...
, although one document called him ''Patriarch of Serbs and Greeks'', with the seat at the Monastery of Peć. The first
Serbian Patriarch This article lists the heads of the Serbian Orthodox Church, since the establishment of the church as an autocephalous archbishopric in 1219 to today's patriarchate. The list includes all the archbishops and patriarchs that led the Serbian Ortho ...
Joanikije II now solemnly crowned Dušan as " Emperor and autocrat of Serbs and Romans" (
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
).


History

The Code was promulgated at a state council on 21 May 1349 in
Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and List of cities in North Macedonia by population, largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Sk ...
, the capital of the Serbian Empire. The foreword is as follows: ''"We enact this Law by our Orthodox Synod, by His Holiness the Patriarch Kir Joanikije together with all the Archbishops and Clergy, small and great, and by me, the true-believing Emperor Stefan, and all the Lords, small and great, of this our Empire"''. In the Charter, which accompanied the Code, it said: "It is my desire to enact certain virtues and truest of laws of the Orthodox faith to be adhered to and observed". Emperor Dušan added a series of articles to it in 1353 or 1354, at a council in
Serres Sérres ( el, Σέρρες ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northe ...
. This second part was half the size and at times cited issues from the first part, referring it to the "first Code". It had a total of 201 articles. Four of them (79, 123, 152, 153), regarding various subjects, refers to the authority of the "Law of the Sainted King" (i.e.
Stefan Uroš II Milutin of Serbia Stefan Uroš II Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Урош II Милутин, Stefan Uroš II Milutin; 1253 – 29 October 1321), known as Stefan Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Милутин, Stefan Milutin), was the King of Serbia between 1282&nd ...
, r. 1282–1321, Dušan's grandfather), which suggests that Milutin had issued a code whose text has not survived. Dušan's Code was thus a supplement to Milutin's code, as well as a supplement to the various Church law codes that also had authority in Serbia; in particular the Nomocanon of Saint Sava (''Zakonopravilo''), enacted in 1219 with the establishment of the Serbian Orthodox Church and Serbian Kingdom. The '' Syntagma Canonum'', written in 1335 by
Matthew Blastares Matthew Blastares ( el, Ματθαῖος Βλαστάρης or Βλάσταρις, Matthaios Blastares/Blastaris; ) was a 14th-century Byzantine Greek monk in Thessalonica and early scholarly opponent of reconciliation with Rome. He was also the ...
, had been translated into Serbian and had received legal authority by 1349, and its articles had influenced the text of the Code. Dušan's Code was heavily influenced by
Byzantine law Byzantine law was essentially a continuation of Roman law with increased Orthodox Christian and Hellenistic influence. Most sources define ''Byzantine law'' as the Roman legal traditions starting after the reign of Justinian I in the 6th century ...
– nearly half of its articles reflect some influence, often modified for Serbia. The code had many articles concerning the Church, which reflects Byzantine Church law; Byzantine civil law codes, especially the late-9th-century compilation by
Basil I Basil I, called the Macedonian ( el, Βασίλειος ὁ Μακεδών, ''Basíleios ō Makedṓn'', 811 – 29 August 886), was a Byzantine Emperor who reigned from 867 to 886. Born a lowly peasant in the theme of Macedonia, he rose in the ...
and
Leo VI Leo VI (or Leon VI, notably in Greek) may refer to : * Leo VI the Wise, Byzantine emperor 886 to 912 * Pope Leo VI, 928 to 929 * King Leo VI of Armenia (1342 – 1393), of the House of Lusignan, last Latin king of the Armenian crusader Kingdom of C ...
, also influenced the code. Scholars A. Solovjev and Soulis conclude that the Council of 1349 issued a three-part comprehensive legal document, since most early manuscripts of the Code also contain two other texts: The first part was an abridgement of the Syntagma, the second part was the so-called "Code of Justinian" (a short compilation of Byzantine legal rules, mostly taken from the Farmer's Law, not to be confused with the Code that is part of the
Corpus Juris Civilis The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor. It is also sometimes referred ...
), and the third part was always Dušan's Code itself. According to Fine, there is a possibility that the Code was written to supplement the first two parts, by adding items that were not covered, rather than to build a comprehensive legal system.


Composition

The first part, the Syntagma, was an encyclopedic legal collection, provided in alphabetical order. It drew from religious and secular law; ecclesiastical articles made up a majority of the Byzantine original. The version of Dušan's manuscripts contained only a third of the original Greek version; it omitted most of the ecclesiastical material and contained mainly secular articles; Serbia already had an ecclesiastical code in St. Sava's Nomocanon. The secular articles of the abridged Serbian version of the Syntagma were drawn chiefly from Basil I's law code and the Novella's of Emperors who succeeded him; they focused on laws governing contracts, loans, inheritance, marriage, dowries etc. as well as on matters of criminal law. The second part, the Law of Justinian, was actually a shortened version of the 8th-century Farmer's Law, a code settling problems and disputes among peasants within a village. The third part, Dušan's Code, added what was not covered in the other two parts and specific Serbian situations. Since aspects of civil and criminal law were well covered in the two parts, Dušan's articles concerned with public law and legal procedures. The Code also provided more material on actual punishments; in which there is a strong Byzantine influence, with executions and mutilations frequently replacing Serbia's traditional fines. It touched on crimes or insults and their punishment; settlement of civil suits (including ordeals and selection and role of juries); court procedure and judicial jurisdictions (defining which cases to be judged by which bodies among Church courts, the Emperor's court, courts of the Emperor's circuit judges, and judgement by a nobleman); and rights and obligations, including the right to freely carry out commerce (articles 120, 121), tax obligations (summary tax and timeframe to pay), grazing rights and their violation, service obligations to the Emperor, exemption from state dues (usually for the Church), obligations associated with land, and the obligation of the Church to perform charity. The code also defined the different types of landholding (specifying the various rights and obligations that went with various categories of land), the rights of inheritance, the position of slaves, and the position of serfs. It defined the labor dues serfs owed to their lords (article 68) but also gave them the right to lay plaint against their master before the Emperor's court (article l39). The code also noted the special privileges of foreign communities (e.g. the ''Saxons''). Many articles regarded the Church's status, thus supplementing the existing canon law texts. The Church received a very privileged position, on the whole, though it was given the duty of charity in no uncertain terms: "And in all churches the poor shall be fed ... and should any one fail to feed them, be he Metropolitan, bishop, or abbot, he shall be deprived of his office" (article 28). The code also banned simony. A clear-cut separation of Church and state was established in most matters, allowing Church courts to judge the Church's people and prohibiting the nobility from interfering with Church property and Church matters. Dušan's Code did not look favorably upon the Catholic Church, though he, as his predecessors, was friendly and respectable to foreign Catholics (Saxons and coastal merchants). He referred to the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
as the "Latin
heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
" and to its adherents as " half believers." He prohibited
proselytism Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between ''evangelism'' or '' Da‘wah'' and proselytism regarding proselytism as invol ...
by Catholics among the Orthodox, Orthodox conversions to Catholicism, and mixed marriages between Catholics and Orthodox unless the Catholic converted to Orthodoxy. He also had articles strongly penalizing "heretics" (
Bogomils Bogomilism ( Bulgarian and Macedonian: ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", bogumilstvo, богумилство) was a Christian neo-Gnostic or dualist sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar P ...
). Only the Orthodox were called Christians. The code defined and allowed court procedure, jurisdictions, and punishment to depend upon the social class of the individual involved, supporting the existing class structure. Articles touched on the status in society and in court of clergy, nobility, commoners, serfs, slaves, Albanians and Vlachs (the latter two for their pastoralist lifestyle, than for ethnic reasons), and foreigners. The Code also guaranteed the authority and income of the state; it contained articles on taxes, obligations associated with land, and services and hospitality owed to the Emperor and his agents. Greek, "Latin" or Italian, Ragusan, Bulgarian, Vlach, Albanian and Serbian merchants can freely trade without interference and in transit they are free to transfer their goods. The Code also maintained law and order, not limiting itself against crime and insults, but also gave responsibility to specific communities; it stated the existing custom that each territory was responsible and liable for keeping order; e.g. a frontier lord was responsible for defending his border: "if any foreign army come and ravish the land of the Emperor, and again return through their land, those frontier lords shall pay all
he people He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
through whose territory they
he army He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
came." (Article 49). The control of brigands, a constant problem in the
Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
, was also widely addressed in articles 126, 145, 146, 158 and 191. Article 145 says: "In whatsoever village a thief or brigand be found, that village shall be scattered and the brigand shall be hanged forthwith ... and the headmen of the village shall be brought before me he Emperorand shall pay for all the brigand or thief hath done from the beginning and shall be punished as a thief and a brigand." and continues in article 146, "also prefects and lieutenants and bailiffs and reeves and headmen who administer villages and mountain hamlets. All these shall be punished in the manner written above rticle 145if any thief or brigand be found in them." And article 126 states, "lf there be a robbery or theft on urban land around a town, let the neighborhood pay for it all." And finally article 158 requires that the localities bordering on an uninhabited hill jointly supervise that region and pay for damage from any robbery occurring there. Fine concludes that these articles demonstrate a weakness in the state's maintaining of order in rural and border areas, which caused it to pass responsibility down to local inhabitants, by threatening them with penalties, the state hoped to force the locality to assume this duty. Another reason for the strictness of the articles towards the locality was the belief that the brigand could not survive without local support, shelter, and food. Thus the brigand was seen as a local figure, locally supported, preying on strangers. As a result, the allegedly supporting locality shared his guilt and deserved to share the punishment. The strict articles were therefore intended to discourage a community from aiding brigands. The monarch had wide autocratic powers, but was surrounded and advised by a permanent council of magnates and prelates. The court, chancellery and administration were rough copies of those of
Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
. The Code named the administrative hierarchy as following: "lands, cities,
župa A župa (or zhupa, županija) is a historical type of administrative division in Southeast Europe and Central Europe, that originated in medieval South Slavic culture, commonly translated as "parish", later synonymous "kotar", commonly transl ...
s and krajištes", the župas and krajištes were one and the same, with the župas on the borders were called krajištes ("
frontier march In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a national "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diff ...
"). The župa consisted of villages, and their status, rights and obligations were regulated in the constitution. The ruling nobility possessed hereditary allodial estates, which were worked by dependent ''sebri'', the equivalent of Greek ''
paroikoi ''Paroikoi'' (plural of Greek πάροικος, ''paroikos'', the etymological origin of parish and parochial) is the term that replaced " metic" in the Hellenistic and Roman period to designate foreign residents. In the Byzantine Empire, ''paroiko ...
''; peasants owing labour services, formally bound by decree. The earlier title of ''župan'' was abolished and replaced with the Greek '' kephale'' (''kefalija'', "head, master"). The legal
transplanting In agriculture and gardening, transplanting or replanting is the technique of moving a plant from one location to another. Most often this takes the form of starting a plant from seed in optimal conditions, such as in a greenhouse or protected ...
is notable with the articles 171 and 172, which regulated juridical independence, taken from ''
Basilika The ''Basilika'' was a collection of laws completed c. 892 AD in Constantinople by order of the Eastern Roman emperor Leo VI the Wise during the Macedonian dynasty. This was a continuation of the efforts of his father, Basil I, to simplify and ...
'' (book VII, 1, 16–17).


Peasants

Dušan's Code is one of few sources on the position of Serbia's peasants.


Legacy

The code continued as the constitution under the rule of Dušan's son, Stefan Uroš V, and during the fall of the Serbian Empire, it was used in all provinces. It was officially used in the successor state,
Serbian Despotate The Serbian Despotate ( sr, / ) was a medieval Serbian state in the first half of the 15th century. Although the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 is generally considered the end of medieval Serbia, the Despotate, a successor of the Serbian Empire and ...
,Sedlar, p. 330 until its annexation by the Ottoman Empire in 1459. The code was used as a reference for Serbian communities under Turkish rule, which exercised considerable legal autonomy in civil cases. The code was used in the Serbian autonomical areas under the Republic of Venice, like
Grbalj Grbalj ( sr-Cyrl, Грбаљ), denotes a historic, rural region, as well as a tribe of the Montenegrin littoral, and a parish located between town of Budva and the Luštica peninsula, Bay of Kotor in coastal Montenegro. Most of the region now li ...
and
Paštrovići The Paštrovići (, ; it, Pastrouichi, Pastrouicchi) is a historical tribe and region in the Montenegrin Littoral. Paštrovići stretches from the southernmost part of the Bay of Kotor, from the cape of Zavala to Spič. Its historical capital ...
.
Noel Malcolm Sir Noel Robert Malcolm, (born 26 December 1956) is an English political journalist, historian and academic. A King's Scholar at Eton College, Malcolm read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and received his doctorate in history from Trinity Col ...
has argued that an article in Dušan's Code can be considered speculatively as an early attempt to clamp down on the self-administered Albanian customary law of the mountains ( Kanun), and if so, this would be an early evidence that such customary laws were in effect. According to Serbian authors T. O. Oraovac and S. S. Djurić, Dušan's Code also served as the base of the Kanun of Lek Dukagjini, however, most scholars agree that, although there are some similarities between these two sets of law, that conclusion is far-fetched. Soon after the institution of Dušan's Code in Albanian life the Turkish invaders conquered the greater part of the Balkans, and instead of Dušan's Code customary law and several other patriarchal structures of social organisation were thereafter revived, in particular among the Albanians. The town of Shkodra had for example, before Dušan's Code, its own customary laws and rules (
Statutes of Scutari The Statutes of Scutari ( it, Statuti di Scutari, sq, Statutet e Shkodrës) were the highest form of expression of the self-government of Scutari (Shkodër) during Venetian rule. There were other cities in Albania which had statutes but only thos ...
). Dušan's Code regulated all social spheres, thus it is considered the second oldest preserved
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...
of Serbia. The original
manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...
is not preserved, but around twenty copies of the transcript, ranging from the 14th to the 18th century, remain.


Manuscripts

The Popović family from Dvorane, which generated 18 or 21 generations of village priests, were important in the preservation of
medieval Serbian literature Medieval Serbian literature or Old Serbian literature ( sr, Стара српска књижевност) refers to the literature written in medieval forms of Serbian language, up to the end of the 15th century, with its traditions extending in ...
: they had the Charter of Our Lady of Ljeviš, written by Serbian King
Stefan Dečanski Stefan Uroš III ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Урош III, ), known as Stefan Dečanski ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Дечански, ; 1276 – 11 November 1331), was the King of Serbia from 6 January 1322 to 8 September 1331. Dečanski was the son of ...
(r. 1321–1331), in their direct property; the Russian consul in Prizren, Jastrebov, found it at the house of the last descendant of the family, Jovan Dvoranac Popović in Prizren, who gave it to the
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Serbica, sr-Cyr, Српска академија наука и уметности, САНУ, Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti, SANU) is a national academy and the ...
. It is believed that one of the forefathers of the family was the ''elder'' of the
Saint Archangels Monastery The Monastery of the Holy Archangels ( sr, Манастир Светих Архангела, Manastir Svetih Arhangela; al, Manastiri i Arkangjelit të Shenjtë) is a Serbian Orthodox monastery located in Prizren, Kosovo. The monastery was foun ...
(Dušan's endowment) near Prizren, and that he during the Ottoman times managed to transfer the valuable texts to the church in his village of Dvorane. In 1779, priest Partenije Popović became a monk of the Saint Mark Koriški Monastery, to where he brought several important books. In 1859, Prizren teacher Nikola Musulin found the Dušan's Code there, and in 1860 the Saint Archangels Charter was found in the St. Nicholas Church in the village of
Koriša Koriša ( sr-cyr, Кориша; sq, Korishë) is a village in the Prizren Municipality in southern Kosovo. Politics Korisha is self-administering locality and does not depend on the Prizren municipality. It is also the first town in Kosovo that ...
. Today 24 manuscripts of Dusan's Code are known. The oldest extant is the Struga manuscript from 1373; which is not preserved in full; only 100 articles remain. The
Athos Athos may refer to: Fictional or mythical characters * Athos (character), one of the title characters in the novel ''The Three Musketeers'' (1844) by Alexandre Dumas père * Athos (mythology), one of the Gigantes in Greek mythology * Athos Fadiga ...
and Studenica manuscripts date from around 1418. The
Hilandar The Hilandar Monastery ( sr-cyr, Манастир Хиландар, Manastir Hilandar, , el, Μονή Χιλανδαρίου) is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbian monastery there. It wa ...
, Bistrica and Prizren manuscripts, which have the most complete texts, date to the 15th century. The Rakovac manuscript, dating to around 1700, comprises only the last 12 articles and the Emperor's comments.


Quotes

;On the Law :Further commandeth our Imperial Majesty: :Should our Imperial Majesty write a letter :Out of wrath, or out of love :Or out of mercy for any one, :And should such a letter contravene the Code :And be at variance with the law and justice :As set down in the Code, :The judges :Shall not comply therewith :But shall judge :And act withal as justice commandenth. ;On Poor Women :Any poor woman unable to litigate :Or defend herself shall choose an attorney :Who shall speak on her behalf. :The poorest hemp-spinstress shall be as free as a priest shall. ;On Prisoners :Whoso escapeth from prison to the Imperial Court, be he a serf of the Crown, or of the Church, or of a nobleman, shall by the act itself be set free; should he be bearing any gifts for the man to whom he hath escaped, he shall return them to the man from whom he hath escaped. :Whoso escapeth from the prison at our Imperial Court to the patriarchal court shall be set free; also shall be set free any man who escapeth from the patriarchal prison to the Imperial Court. :Also, should any one give shelter to a man from a foreign land, and that man be a fugitive from his master or from justice holding our imperial letter of clemency, said letter shall not be contested; should he hold no such letter, he shall be returned wherefrom he hath escaped.


See also

* Medieval Serbian law


References


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * (Public Domain) * * * * * * * * * Soloviev, Alexander ** ''Selected Monuments of Serbian Law from the 12th to 15th centuries'' (1926) ** ''Legislation of Stefan Dušan, Emperor of Serbs and Greeks'' (1928) ** ''Dušan's Code in 1349 and 1354'' (1929) * *Golijan, Dragan, and Vladan Stanković. "Dušan’s Code-The Act Constitutional Nature And Foundation Of The Serbian State." International Journal of Economics & Law 13 (2015): 30–34.


External links


THE CODE OF SERBIAN TSAR STEPHAN DUSHAN
by Radoman Stankovic {{DEFAULTSORT:Dusan's Code 1340s in law 1350s in law 14th century in Serbia Byzantine law Defunct constitutions Legal history of Serbia Medieval documents of Serbia Medieval legal codes Medieval legal codes of Serbia Medieval Serbia Serbian books Serbian Despotate Serbian Empire Law of Serbia Serbian manuscripts South Slavic manuscripts Stefan Dušan Feudalism in Serbia Cyrillic manuscripts 1349 in Europe