Josip Šilović (8 September 1858 – 9 May 1939) was a Croatian jurist and university professor who served as a rector of the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...

, member of the

Croatian Parliament The Croatian Parliament () or the Sabor is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Croatia. Under the terms of the Constitution of Croatia, Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the nation, people and is vested with legislative power. ...

, senator in the

Parliament of Yugoslavia The Parliament of Yugoslavia was the legislature of Yugoslavia. Before World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia it was known as the National Assembly (''Narodna skupština''), while in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia the name was c ...

and first Ban of the

Sava Banovina The Sava Banovina or Sava Banate ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Savska Banovina, Савска бановина), was a province ( banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1939. It was named after the Sava River and consisted of much of the present- ...

Early life and education

Josip Šilović was born 8 September 1858 in a small village of Praputnjak near

Bakar Bakar may refer to: *Bakar, Croatia Bakar is a town in the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in western Croatia. The population of the town was 8,279 according to the 2011 Croatian census, including 1,473 in the titular settlement. Ninety percent of th ...

to an emigrant forest worker who died at work leaving a widow with four children. Šilović's early life in poverty was associated with his exceptional humanitarian work later in life. After graduating law and rehabilitation, he acquired a Ph.D. in law in 1884 at the ''Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences''.

Career

After working in judiciary and administration from 1883 until 1894, he started working as a full-time professor of civil law and civil procedure (1894-1897), and criminal law, criminal procedure, and philosophy of law (1894-1924) at the Zagreb Faculty of Law. In academic year 1898/99, he served as rector of the

. He was a founder of modern Croatian teaching of criminal law. Šilović was fluent in five languages and good in

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to Cursive, longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Gr ...

. Šilović was an MP for the liberal People's Party in the

. In addition, he served as Ban of

from 1929 to 1931.

Charity work

In addition to his regular job at the University, Šimović was intensively conducting charitable activities. He was a longtime president of a humanitarian organization ''National Defense-Union of Charities'' and one of the editors of the ''National Defense'' publication. He was often called "father of Croatian social policies, especially child protection" and "promoter of charity and humanitarian actions". During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Šimović served as Director of the ''Office for Assisting War Victims''. His credits include saving a large number of starving children and young people from

Istria Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; ; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian: ; ; ) is the largest peninsula within the Adriatic Sea. Located at th ...

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

and

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...

Works

* Self-defense (Nužna obrana) (1890) * Criminal Law (Kazneno pravo) (1893) * Free Will and the Criminal Law (Slobodna volja i kazneno pravo) (1899) * Suspended Sentence (Uvjetna osuda) (1912) * Causes of Crimes (Uzroci zločina) (1913) * Criminal Law: General Part (Kazneno pravo: Opći dio) (1929)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silovic, Josip 1858 births 1939 deaths 19th-century Croatian people Croatian lawyers Rectors of the University of Zagreb Bans of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia Lawyers from Austria-Hungary