Serbian Civil Code

The Serbian Civil Code was the first and only complete civil code in Serbia, enacted on 6 April 1844 in the Principality of Serbia. It was modeled mostly on the Austrian general civil code and was written by the Habsburg Serb lawyer Jovan Hadzic under the title Civil code for the Principality of Serbia. Its 950 articles made it one of the shortest civil codes ever produced. It regulated private property, personal freedom, freedom of contracting and the equality of parties in civil proceedings, and it was designed mainly to protect owners of land. It followed the French, Austrian and Dutch codes among the earliest modern civil law codifications in nineteenth century Europe, and it stayed in force for a century until 1946. A 1946 law on the invalidity of pre-war legislation let it be used until new legislation was adopted, so it is still applied today to certain legal gaps.