On 13 and 14 November, the traditional 7th Motovun Colloquium, a two-day international symposium dedicated to "Greek-Roman and canonical legal heritage as the foundation of the legal culture of the West", took place in Motovun. The conference brought together relevant university teachers from Greek and Roman law and national legal history, as well as leading Croatian experts who, on a doctrinal and practical level, are engaged in the study of the relationship between canonical and civil law and, finally, lawyers, historians, linguists, judges and musicologists from the country and abroad. The meeting, organized by the State Archives in Pazin, published by Josip Turčinović, Motovun Municipality, Motovun Tourist Board and Fotovun, was held with the strong support of the University of Zagreb, under the guidance of prof. dr. sc. Ivan Milotić, President of the Committee on Statutory Issues of the University of Zagreb.
In the first part of the conference, there were presentations on the punishment of extortion (and corruption) in the Republican Rome and the influences of these understandings, about which the noted lecture was given by prof. dr. sc. Ivana Jaramaz Reskušić. A separate unit is dedicated to the establishment of the rules of warfare and its humanization under the influence of legal customs, religious and other rules that originate from the Greek, Hellenistic and Roman times (dr. sc. Miran Marelja and Danijel Javorić Barić). Scientists discussed in detail the standards set by Greco-Roman law regarding the protection of certain categories of persons (prisoners, wounded, women and children) and the preservation of specific property objects (temples, churches, etc.) and in this regard considered their effects on the development of the rules of warfare in the Middle and New Ages and, consequently, on its humanization. A special unit was dedicated to the Greco-Roman influences, especially the medieval and modern canonical rules related to marriage, family and the status of women, and the understanding that the universality of canon law is still considered as a conceptual model and potential for minimal harmonisation of family law in the European Union in certain legal circles (Prof. dr. sc. Zrinka Erent-Sunko, PhD Ivan Obadić). Scientists have particularly emphasized that today, even in anti-Catholic circles, canon law in the Middle Ages and the New Age is attributed a decisive influence on the elementary protection of women and families, their dignity, sexual morality and freedom, and the abolition of tutoring over women, i.e. the complete construction of it as a legal subject.
The beginning of the second part of the gathering was dedicated to the 600th anniversary of the end of the civilian rule of the Patriarch of Aquileia in Istria. Professors Valter Baldaš and Livio Prodan in their lectures exhaustively analyzed the general and legal history of Aquileia, the Church of Aquileia, the Venetian Patriarch, the emergence of the Patriarch of Aquileia and his character as a diocese, ecclesiastical provinces and states of the medieval type. Since the Patriarch of Aquileia in the developed Middle Ages was the civil owner of many municipalities and estates in Istria, his position as a feudal lord with all competences (legislative, judicial, administrative, fiscal, etc.) was explained. The civil determinant of his authority and its encirclement into a territorial-political unit sparked a wide-ranging debate on the issue. As the Motovun Statute was first adopted by the Patriarch of Aquileia as the civilian master of Motovun, prof. dr. sc. Ivan Milotić analyzed this statute, its nomotechnics, language and influences of Roman and canon law, as well as the interpenetration of civil and canonical categories.
David di Paoli Paulovich, maestro and judge, gave a unique legal-liturgical-musicological view of the liturgy of the Church of Aquileia and of the poem of the Patriarch.Canto Patriarchino) which, with a number of examples from the entire eastern Adriatic coast (Trogir, the hinterland of Dalmatia, the whole of Istria, then Grado, Aquileia, the Alpine and underwater areas of Italy), described and distinguished from the Aquileian and Gregorian songs, but also associated with the songs in the Old Slavic liturgy. Particularly inspiring were the tunes he himself performed, which he collected and which represent the last echoes of this tune before his withdrawal around the mid-20th century.
An in-depth analysis of institutionalized anti-Catholicism in England from the 16th to the 20th century on the example of legal acts and policies was prepared by two lawyers, Tomislav Sadrić and Ivan Branimir Pavičić. They analyzed the neglect of Catholics and the frequent denial of their fundamental subjectivity in England and the easing of these attitudes during the 19th century, which, however, has not eliminated the latent distrust of Catholics to this day. On that occasion, a debate began on the possibility of such attitudes as something traditional influencing the general context of Brexit.
At the invitation of the State Archives in Pazin, as a member of the editorial board of the ‘Vjesnik istarski arhiv’, a lecture on infanticide in Istria at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, legal policies with regard to it, regulation as a criminal offence (and violations of childbirth failure) and the canonical view was given by Doc. dr. sc. Dunja Milotić. Her entire lecture was based on reports of court proceedings against women accused of infanticide conducted by the Rovinj Jury.
Prof. dr. sc. Budislav Vukas, M. and Dean Borbelj gave lectures on chronology and key events, starting in the late 1980s, which brought about a new start to the institutionalised dialogue between the Church and the State, i.e. on 30 May as a turning point in this sense according to the views of the ‘Voice of the Council’.
Professor Marino Martinčević gave a final presentation on the historical yet so topical topic ‘The impact of the plague in 1630-1631 on the demographic and economic trends of the Poreč commune’, opening the door to numerous reflections and debates.
At the end of the meeting Prof. dr. sc. Budislav Vukas, M. presented the proceedings of last year’s Motovun Colloquium ‘Rapal Treaty and Lateran Treaties: echoes between states and in the Church’.
This year's Motovun Colloquium, with great efforts, was held with the physical presence of the participants, which strongly expressed the effort to maintain the continuity of the gathering in these times, but also the irreplaceable way of its progress, as well as the progress of academic and scientific life as a whole, which consists essentially in direct discussion, argumentation, interdisciplinarity, but also socializing.
