CANON AND ECCLESIASTICAL LAW ON A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY
International scientific conference on the 150th anniversary of the modern University of Zagreb and appointment of the first rector – Matija Mesić
(1874 – 2024)
University of Zagreb, 11 – 12 November 2024
PROGRAMME SPEAKERS SUMMARIES OF PRESENTATIONS
The roots and heritage of the University of Zagreb date to the Academy in Zagreb, which was established and managed by the Society of Jesus. Classes there were held from the end of 1662, and the university rights were granted to it by a royal charter in 1669. From 1726/1727, the first university sections (Philosophy, Dogmatic and Moral Theology) were joined in the organisational sense by the Canon Law Section. Following the abolition of the Jesuit order in 1773, the Jesuit higher education institution was reorganised into the Royal Academy of Science, with three Faculties – of Philosophy, of Theology, and of Law.
The legal continuity from the Jesuit higher education institution at the Royal Academy was maintained by the Faculty of Theology. The continuity of the legal education is also reflected in the study of law, whose backbone was in 1776 the Canon Law Section itself as the only stable one. From the Jesuit academy, the Professor of Canon Law and a cleric Franjo Milašinčić transferred to the Canon Law Section, becoming the first head of the Faculty of Law (as a Vice-Dean of the study of law).
After he was ousted from the Royal Academy of Science during the Josephinian Reforms, from 1784 onwards the Faculty of Theology operated within the Seminary of Zagreb, constituting the sole existing and unbroken legal link with the year 1669 and the Jesuit Academy. Canon Law was also one of the subjects taught there. At the Faculty of Law, the Canon Law Section was dissolved at the time. It was reinstated in the modernist reform in the mid-19th century due to the general belief that there could be no contemporary and sustainable study of law without the study of canon law.
Owing to the efforts of Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer, who called in his speech before the Parliament for the University of Zagreb to be established, the Parliament of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia adopted in 1861 the Statutory Basis on the University of Zagreb, accepted by King Francis Joseph I on 8 April 1869. At the request of Viceroy Ivan Mažuranić, the ruler confirmed on 5 January 1874 the Legal Article of the Parliament of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia on the Establishment of the University of Zagreb. Its first Rector, the cleric Matija Mesić, was also a professor of Canon Law. During that formative period of the Croatian nation, the modern University of Zagreb gained a central institutional significance for the Croatian nation and its formation.
During approximately the same period when the factors of the founding of the Croatian nation (including Zagreb as its capital city) existed, the Diocese of Zagreb was elevated to the level of an Archdiocese. Furthermore, the support of Bishop Strossmayer enabled the renovation of the Church of St Mark, whose position and state-forming institutions in its immediate surroundings gave it a special national significance. Finally, also owing to Bishop Strossmayer, the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts was established, with the cleric Franjo Rački as its first head.
Along with ecclesiastical law, canon law is of fundamental importance for the University of Zagreb. Together with theology, it is counted among the fundamental subjects of the university education in general, from the first university in the 11th century. Canon law is the only link with the Jesuit Academy, and thus with 1669 as the year of the establishment of the University of Zagreb. Canon law is a part of the foundation of the first faculties and study programmes as well as the first stable sections. Until the end of World War II, canon law was – together with ecclesiastical law – one of the most studied subjects at the University of Zagreb, at both different sections and different faculties.
In the first phase of the development of the modern University of Zagreb, professors of canon (and ecclesiastical) law and Deans of the Faculty of Theology, including clerics in general as Rectors, had a crucial impact on the establishment of its oldest constituents (Faculties). They also had an impact on the establishment of faculties and universities outside of the Croatian territories in this part of Europe.
Canon law and ecclesiastical law have become integral parts of the modern University of Zagreb, giving it a seal of progress, recognisability and inclusion in the global events due to the universality of those very branches of law. From the Age of Justinian until the Pre-Modern Period and the Napoleonic Code, canon law and ecclesiastical law constituted the only sustainable, systematic and universal system of law (alio and civilisation in general) in the West, which was woven into university education at public higher education institutions as important. In a similar way, it was woven into the University of Zagreb as important. That is why it is valued and recognised in a special way on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the modern University of Zagreb with the organisation of the international and multidisciplinary scientific conference titled “Canon (and Ecclesiastical) Law at Public Higher Education Institutions”.
Canon law and ecclesiastical law were created for the purpose of ensuring a legal framework, governing relations in the Church consisting of people rather than saints, in order to ensure legal discipline and its enforcement. They never insisted that the application of law achieve mere technical and formal righteousness (in the sense of de iure righteousness), but rather equity (ex aqueo et bono) because equity is righteousness conditional upon and set out by the context. By being a part of the university from its very beginnings at the end of the 11th century, canon law encouraged a healthy scepticism, intellectual pursuit, thinking outside the box, critical thinking and innovation.
