The Yugoslav Community of Nations [Reprint ed.] 3111188302, 9783111188300

Table of contents :
Preface
Contents
1. The Multinational Condition
2. Development of the Historical Units
3. Rise and Fall of the First Yugoslav State
4. The Rebirth of Yugoslavia as a Federal State
5. From Constitution to Constitutional Law
6. From Constitutional Law to Constitution
7. The 1963 Constitution
8. The Nations Come of Age
Bibliography
Samenvatting: De Joegoslavische gemeenschap van naties
Kratak sadržaj: Jugoslovenska zajednica naroda
General Index
Index of Persons

Citation preview

THE YUGOSLAV COMMUNITY OF NATIONS

THE YUGOSLAV COMMUNITY OF NATIONS

by

F R I T S W. H O N D I U S

1968

MOUTON THE HAGUE • PARIS

© Copyright 1968 in The Netherlands. Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.

Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., Printers, The Hague

Ko na brdo, ak'i malo, stoji, Vise vidi neg onaj pod brdom. Petar Petrovic Njegus, Gorski Vijenac, 1847

PREFACE

The development of the Yugoslav community of nations, in terms of constitutional law, shows an interesting combination of parallels and contrasts. They are well worth recording. The historiographer of this complex area faces a peculiar problem: how to record a development which frequently lacks unity of time, place and action. A book on Yugoslav constitutional development in some respects resembles an experimental theatre in which different manifestations are performed on different stages in one and the same hall. Students of Yugoslav constitutional law have three main sources of literature at their disposal: publications by Yugoslavs in their own languages and in foreign languages, and publications by non-Yugoslavs. Yugoslav legal publications are numerous. Apart from the official editions of laws, commentaries on laws and information material, there are many professional journals and textbooks. On account of the language in which they have been written, most of this material remains beyond the horizon of the international public. For the benefit of foreign readers, the Yugoslavs are making laudable efforts to issue foreign language publications. Major laws have been translated into English and French, and several legal journals and university yearbooks carry summaries of their contents in one of these languages. Some periodicals are even specially produced in English or French, such as The New Yugoslav Law, Questions of Socialism, Yugoslav Survey or Review of International Affairs. Even so, this category of literature does not entirely satisfy the needs of foreign readers, tending as it does to be profuse on theory, but brief, if not silent, on practice. The 1,046 page standard work on present constitutional law, Novi ustavni sistem by Jovan Djordjevic, provides hardly any data on constitutional practice. The chief quality of the classical Yugoslav law textbook — its logic and its theoretical consistency — is, at the same time, its chief defect. Reality is somewhat more complicated and somewhat less logical.

8

PREFACE

There are several excellent foreign books and articles on Yugoslav constitutional law. The United States, in particular, which has many citizens of Yugoslav origin, has been very productive. Also in Germany, France and Britain studies on Yugoslavia have seen the light. Expatriate Yugoslavs in Britain have edited a special journal on current Yugoslav affairs, Review. The disadvantage of many of these works is their strong bias. Admittedly, it is difficult to write about Yugoslavia without choosing sides. The author embarked upon the present study in the hope of doing justice to both the Yugoslavs' own views of their multinational, federal system, and to the views of foreign commentators. This study is presented in the form of a chronicle with marginal annotations. Admittedly, this method limits the possibilities for functional analysis, but it shows how different problems are interwoven. The author felt that properly selected and presented material can be an aid towards a better understanding of the complex Yugoslav community. The author remembers with gratitude the encouragement he was given many years ago by Professor Aleksandar Magarasevic to undertake this study. Through the friendship and co-operation of his colleagues in all Republics of Yugoslavia the author could make the acquaintance of the rich world of Yugoslav law and legal literature. With assistance from Yugoslav and Dutch government agencies and some other organizations, he was able to visit Yugoslavia eight times during this period and to gather on-the-spot impressions. His two base camps for these academic expeditions were the Law Faculties of Belgrade and Zagreb, both of which treated the author as one of the family. His home base was the Documentatiebureau voor OostEuropees Recht of Leyden University, directed by Professor Zs. Szirmai. It is not possible in this short space to mention all persons who assisted his efforts, but the author feels excused in making a few exceptions: to mention the response and counsel he has received throughout the years from Professor Eugen Pusic of Zagreb, and the critical comments that were offered by Professor Rudolf Bicanic of Zagreb, Professor Leon Gerskovic and Dr. Miodrag JoviSic of Belgrade, and Dr. Ernest Petric of Ljubljana, who read the whole or parts of the manuscript. The advice of Mr. Bruce Burton and Mrs. Jean Sanders saved the author from some faux pas in the English language. The Hague, January 1968

CONTENTS

Preface

7

Chapter One The Multinational Condition

11

Chapter Two Development of the Historical Units

30

Chapter Three Rise and Fall of the First Yugoslav State

77

Chapter Four The Rebirth of Yugoslavia as a Federal State

113

Chapter Five From Constitution to Constitutional Law

168

Chapter Six From Constitutional Law to Constitution

210

Chapter Seven The 1963 Constitution

244

Chapter Eight The Nations Come of Age

314

Bibliography

346

Samenvatting De Joegoslavische gemeenschap van naties

354

Kratak sadrzaj Jugoslovenska zajednica naroda

357

General Index

360

Index of Persons

372

CHAPTER ONE

THE MULTINATIONAL CONDITION

INTRODUCTION

Federalism in Yugoslavia derives its origin from the multinational condition of the country. In 1943, when the present Yugoslav State came into being, this condition was put on record as a fact. It has been reaffirmed by the three constitutions which were enacted since, in 1946, 1953 and 1963. The nationalities of Yugoslavia deserve our interest not only for their own sake, but also because it is worth while to observe how they have been incorporated into the constitutional system. This system is the product of a philosophy. The text of the present Constitution and of its predecessors abounds with 'principles', 'objectives', 'aspirations', 'foundations' and other terminology fitting in a body of doctrine. Yugoslav political theory, and Yugoslav legal theory for that matter, moves from axiom to principle, from principle to precept. It builds institutions like mathematical equations. In this whole complex a place has been given to the nationalities. In a way, they are an exception, as they perform no role in the value system of the Constitution. They are fixed data. The present name of the Yugoslav State is 'Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.' This federal State of South Slavs (jug means 'South') is composed of six member Republics. Each of these, in turn, is organized more or less along the lines of ethnic nationality. In the act by which the federal Yugoslav State was proclaimed on 29th November 1943, this was formulated as follows: Yugoslavia is being constructed and will continue to develop on the federative principle which will provide for full legal equality of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians and Montenegrins, respectively the peoples of Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina. 1 1

Odluka o izgradnji Jugoslavije na federativnom principu, (AVNOJ), Article 3.

12

THE MULTINATIONAL CONDITION

We notice the subtle distinction between 'Serbs, Croats, ...' and '... the peoples of Serbia, Croatia, ...'. This careful phrasing was necessary because the Yugoslav concept of nationality is more personal than territorial in nature. The way in which members of the same nationality inhabit their country corresponds roughly, but never exactly to the division of that country into territorial units. The 1963 Constitution mentions two main categories: (i) The 'peoples (of Yugoslavia)' (Section I, and Articles 42, 113, 114, 190, 191 and 252). The Slavonic word for these units is narod, which has the same meaning as natio in Latin: a group into which one is born. When the Constitution deals with 'the peoples', it refers to those South Slav peoples whose members are nearly all to be found within the boundaries of the Yugoslav State; (ii) The 'national minorities' (nacionalne manjine) or 'nationalities' (narodnosti) (Section I, and Article 43). Under this denominator the Constitution mentions those population groups which belong to peoples of which the majority live outside Yugoslavia. The term 'nationality' (narodnost) is also used to denote both categories (i) and (ii) (for example in Article 41). In order to gain some insight into the character of the Yugoslav nationalities, they will be examined in this Chapter from different points of view: their numerical strength and geographic distribution, demographic trends, languages and level of development. Our survey, based on the 1961 data, will show how widely different are the Yugoslav peoples of to-day. In the second Chapter, a historial survey will place these differences, as well as the unifying tendencies, into their proper perspective. POPULATION FIGURES

Five population censuses have been taken since the establishment of an independent Yugoslavia, namely in the years 1921, 1931, 1948, 1953 and 1961. The classification of the Yugoslav population by ethnic nationality (narodnost) according to the latest census is shown in Table I. These figures indicate the results of the statements by the individual inhabitants of Yugoslavia about their ethnic nationality, which should be clearly distinguished from 'political nationality' or 'citizenship.' The present population of Yugoslavia is about 20 million people. At the time of the census it was 18| million. Table I reveals that the five main peoples, as defined above under (i) together account for 15^ million

13

THE MULTINATIONAL CONDITION

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