History

I Lyceum as a precedent of higher education

Kragujevac at the time of the Lyceum

Serbia entered the early 19th century already exhausted by the long struggle for liberation and the achievement of full statehood. In the desire for freedom, the idea of moving the capital to the center of Šumadija, far enough away from the Turks, yet close enough for the outlines of a modern state to emerge there, was born.

Kragujevac, where the Faculty of Law is located, became the capital of Serbia in 1818, when the Chancellery of Prince Miloš was moved there. From that time on, Kragujevac also became an important center in cultural and educational terms. This is evidenced by the fact that in September 1833 the printing house was moved from Belgrade and that the first theater, the "Princely-Serbian Theater", was founded in the same year, as the first cultural institution of its kind in Serbia. Two years later, along with the Kragujevac Lyceum, a library was founded, which later became the National Library. The relocation of the printing house (Knjaževsko-srbska knjigopečatnja) created the conditions for Kragujevac to grow into a publishing center.

Although not for long, Kragujevac remained the capital of Serbia from April 25 (May 7), 1818, to 1841. Kragujevac was proclaimed the capital in the Vraćevšnica Monastery, at the Đurđevdan Assembly, thus laying the foundations for the golden age and flourishing of the heart of Šumadija.

At that time, in 1836, there were 72 primary schools in Serbia, of which only 26 were state-run, one five-year high school in Kragujevac and three two-year high schools. Of the vocational schools, there was a two-year seminary. Two years later, in 1838, at the proposal of the Minister of Education, a decision was made to “elevate our Gymnasium to the level of a Lyceum”. Thus, 1838 is taken as the year when the Gymnasium in Kragujevac became a Lyceum. The reasons for this should be sought not only in the desire to achieve systematic education, but also in the desire to educate as many people as possible who were necessary for work in the state services. How important education was in Serbia is shown by the fact that during the time of the defenders of the constitution, there were only two separate ministries: the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education. The other branches of internal administration were located in one ministry: police, medical services, construction, economic administration, and military affairs.

Atanasije Nikolić

The Need for the Establishment of the Lyceum

Serbia continued its European path of higher education in 1838. The difficult beginnings are perhaps best described by the thoughts of Atanasij Nikolić, the first rector of the Lyceum, who, visionary in the face of all the hardships and criticisms of its functioning, said: “What else could be done, then, but to adopt that thought, to sow the seeds of good hope, so that it would bear fruit with a better outlook for the future”.

The reasons for the establishment of the Lyceum should be sought, first of all, in the need of Serbia at that time to pass a large number of laws, for which it needed legally educated people. For the efficient functioning of the state, it was necessary to create its own intelligentsia, primarily bureaucratic. In addition, it was necessary to create an intelligentsia and overcome the period in which educated people came from abroad. Until that time, educational ideas were brought to Serbia mainly by Serbs from the Austrian Empire, just as the first professors at higher schools wrote laws.

The need to establish schools for higher education was understood by Vuk Karadžić and Jovan Hadžić before anyone else, and they advised Prince Miloš on this. The beginning of the realization of the idea of establishing a school for higher education dates back to June 16, 1838, when Stefan Stefanović-Tenka, the then Minister of Education, submitted a proposal to Prince Miloš to transform the Gymnasium into a Lyceum. During the period when the Lyceum also included the Gymnasium, the classes taught in the first three years constituted the so-called “grammatical class” (the lower grades of the gymnasium).

On June 19, 1838, Prince Miloš wrote to the Minister of Education and informed him of his intention to establish a Lyceum. In the same year, on September 18, the Minister of Education submitted a proposal to the Prince for the schedule of lectures at the Gymnasium and the Lyceum. According to the submitted proposal, which was accepted, the Lyceum was to last two years. The program stipulated that “...especially philosophical and mathematical sciences with practical land surveying will be taught”.

The following year, in 1839, the Prince, in agreement with the Council, prescribed the manner of managing the Lyceum and the procedure for electing the rector. The Ministry of Education appointed the aforementioned Atanasije Nikolić as the first rector.

At the end of that school year, the Lyceum was separated from the Gymnasium. It received its own premises, which were located in the “former military warehouse, next to the church gate”. It remained in that building until 1841, when the Lyceum was moved to Belgrade.

The Lyceum in the District Administration building within Gospodar Jevrem's Konak.

The first professors of the Lyceum

In the first two years of operation at the Lyceum, there was only one philosophy class. However, on August 1, 1840, the then Minister of Education, Stefan Radičević, submitted a proposal to the State Council to establish a new class for students who had graduated from philosophy, where they would study law. The Minister of Education's request was justified, since at that time there was an increased need for educated personnel, due to the expansion of the state administration, so the proposal was accepted at the Council session held on September 3, 1840, when the decision to establish a law class was made. The study of law required new professors.

Three candidates applied for the competition for a professor of law, one of whom was Jovan Sterija Popović, a lawyer in Vršac. In addition, he was also a well-known writer, and in his application he stated that he had graduated from philosophy, as well as law. As the best candidate, the head of the Ministry of Education informed Jovan Sterija Popović that he had been accepted as a professor of law at the Lyceum and asked him to, if at all possible, move to Kragujevac by September 15. Sterija arrived in Kragujevac in early November 1840. He was appointed as a temporary professor of law at the Lyceum in Kragujevac by a decree of November 16, 1840. As early as November 30, 1840, the Ministry issued a decree on the appointment and, after taking the prescribed oath on the same day, Jovan Sterija Popović became the first professor of law at the Lyceum in Kragujevac, and the Lyceum became the first institution of higher education in the Principality of Serbia. Jovan Sterija Popović taught the subject entitled “Legal Nature and Political Science”. In the summer semester of 1840/41, he gave lectures on Civil Procedure.

Lyceum Curriculum

The curriculum for law studies at the Lyceum provided for the following subjects: "Natural Law, French, World Statistics and German in the first year; in the second year: State Law, Police and Economic Sciences, Criminal Law, Bill of Exchange Law, French and German". This was not a final list of subjects that could be studied.

In an act of the Ministry of Education, which prescribes the legal disciplines studied at the Lyceum, it is also stated: "That the laws that are adopted will become the subject of study for law students. Thus, after the Civil Code was adopted in 1844, a decision was made to teach it as a separate subject.

The first year of law studies at the Lyceum was introduced in 1841, and was regulated by the law of 1844. The writer of the law of 1844, in which the Lyceum was defined as a "large school" in which "higher sciences" were taught, was Jovan Sterija Popović. The law department had the status of a vocational school, it represented the beginning of the study of law - the Faculty of Law. The philosophy department did not have such a status, but was considered an extension of the Gymnasium, which at that time had six classes.

The reasons for opening the Faculty of Law as the first are understandable and clear. At a time when the organization of state administration and the judiciary was being established, the need for lawyers was imperative, so it is logical that law studies were organized before others.

Since 1850, another year has been added to the Faculty of Law, so that law studies last, as at other European faculties, three years. Thus, Serbia becomes part of Europe. The study program was modeled after European law faculties, because the professors who were engaged at the Serbian Faculty of Law acquired their knowledge by studying at European universities.

Jovan Sterija Popović

Dimitrije Matić 

II The establishment of the Faculty of Law department in Kragujevac of the University of Belgrade

When the capital was moved to Belgrade, the Lyceum also went with it, so the establishment of new higher education institutions had to wait a long time, more than a century, until the 1970s.

In the 1970s, Kragujevac was again at a turning point. Industry was developing. The city became the capital of the Serbian economy. However, without educated personnel, the rapid development of Kragujevac would not have lasted long.

With such conviction and expectations, as it had in 1838, in 1972, the Faculty of Law in Belgrade established a department of the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac.

On July 26, 1972, the Municipality of Kragujevac and the Faculty of Law in Belgrade concluded an agreement “on financing the work of the Department of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade, with its headquarters in Kragujevac”. The Municipality undertook in the Agreement to immediately “provide funds for the normal work of the Department” by immediately providing the emerging faculty with space for use: “part of the building of the former Teachers’ School, with the necessary associated premises with a total area of approximately 2,500 square meters”, as well as the necessary financial resources for regular activities. On the other hand, the Faculty of Law in Belgrade undertook to “organize and regularly hold classes and exams at the Department in a timely manner...”

The ceremonial start of the first school year was held on October 23, 1972.

The importance of the opening of the Department for the city is evidenced by the fact that this ceremony was included in the program of the October festivities.

Зграда бивше Учитељске школе у којој је почело са радом Одељење почело са радом

III INDEPENDENCE FROM THE FACULTY OF LAW IN BELGRADE

Осамостаљивање Одељења

Along with scientific work and teaching, the then staff worked on obtaining the conditions for the Department to become independent from the Faculty in Belgrade and continue its work as the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac.

For this purpose, a document was drawn up entitled "Review of the Conditions for the Separation of the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade - Kragujevac Department" in Kragujevac from the Working Organization "Faculty of Law, University of Belgrade", Belgrade and the Establishment of the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac."

The aforementioned Review of the Conditions for Independence also states that „”

To this end, special attention was paid to fostering the areas of self-government and industrial property law and copyright. In particular, the area of industrial property law and copyright gained importance, as a discipline and area that had not been given special attention in the then Yugoslavia and whose study had not been approached in a systematic manner until then.

The process of making the Department independent and establishing the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac practically began on 13 January 1976, when the Decision on making the Department independent and establishing the Faculty of Law with its seat in Kragujevac was adopted. A day later, the competent body of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade confirmed this decision of the Kragujevac Department.

The founder of the Kragujevac Faculty and the former head of the Department, Prof. Dr. Živomir Đorđević, also spoke at that Belgrade session, expressing special gratitude to the Belgrade Faculty for its assistance in establishing the Faculty in Kragujevac and expressing his wish for this assistance to continue, as the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac would like to remain in close contact with the Belgrade Faculty. Regardless of the fact that it will cooperate with other faculties in the country, “it will always remain focused, due to geographical and other reasons, primarily on cooperation with the Faculty of Law in Belgrade”. Prof. Dr. Borislav Blagojević, as the president of the Assembly of the Community of Working People of the Belgrade Faculty of Law, emphasized that “with the establishment of the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac, our country, and especially Šumadija, will be richer for another higher education institution. The Faculty of Law in Belgrade will continue to provide assistance to the department, that is, the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac, and it will do so, if necessary, even to the detriment of its own interests.”

On June 28, 1976, the Secretariat for Education and Science of the Republic of Serbia adopted a decision confirming the establishment of the faculty in Kragujevac.