ZBORNIK - Matica srpska

Srðan Šarkiã
AUTONOMY (AYTONOMIA) IN SERBIAN MEDIEVAL LAW
Summary
The word autonomy, originating from the Greek term ���������, is
largely used in modern public as well as in private law. Greek classical
authors regularly used autonomia in the context of interstate relations,
where it indicates a limited independence permitted by a stronger power to
a weaker.
The word penetrated in Serbian mediaeval law through Byzantine legal
miscellanies, which were translated into Serbian and accepted in Serbian
mediaeval state. But, in Serbian legal sources the autonomia has lost
its original meaning. It meant some kind of arbitrariness or self-will, translated
into old-Serbian as samozakonije — the word which is obsolete in
modern Serbian language.
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