Customary law of Central and Southeast Europe in medieval and early modern times. A comparative approach and a few South Slav, German, Transylvanian Saxon, Hungarian, Vlach and Romanian enactments

The study presents a legal historical comparison of various ethnic marked consuetudinary laws from Southeastern and Central Europe during the Middle Ages and early modern history. Such customary laws were enacted in proper codifications specific to the ethnic communities of the South Slavs (Zakon sudnyi ljudem, Serbian and Croatian customary laws), Germans (Sachsenspiegel, Schwabenspiegel, Magdeburgisches Stadtrecht, Ofner Stadtrecht), Transylvanian Saxons (Codex Altemberger, Eigenlandrecht der Siebenbürger Sachsen), Hungarians (Werbőczy István’s Tripartitum), Vlachs (Jus Valachicum in Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Herzegovina) and Romanians (Jus Valachicum in South Transylvania). In each of the illustrated cases we specify the emergence and features of the customary laws specific to various Southeast and Central European ethnic communities, the manuscript editions, variants and copies of the original sources, the languages in which they were written, as well as their spread, importance and influence upon the neighbouring ethnic communities. We show that, in spite of the multiethnic cohabitation in Central Europe and the Balkans, the various ethnic consuetudinary laws had a parallel development, while each of the ethnies, social categories, medieval and modern nations involved kept their own ethno-juridical peculiarities.