LAW AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

Some early legal performance writing from Serbia.

Dušan's Code (Serbian: Душанов законик, Dušanov zakonik, known historically as Закон благовјернаго цара Стефана) is a compilation of several legal systems that was enacted by Stephen Uroš  IV Dušan of Serbia in 1349. It was used in the Serbian Empire and the succeeding Serrbian Despotate. It is considered an early constitution, or close to it; an advanced set of laws which regulated all aspects of life.

The Code was promulgated at a state council on 21 May 1349, in Skopje, the capital of the Serbian Empire. The foreword is as follows: "We enact this Law by our Orthodox Synod, by His Holiness the Patriarch Kir Joanikije together with all the Archbishops and Clergy, small and great, and by me, the true-believing Emperor Stephen, and all the Lords, small and great, of this our Empire". In the Charter, which accompanied the Code, it said: "It is my desire to enact certain virtues and truest of laws of the Orthodox faith to be adhered to and observed". Emperor Dušan added a series of articles to it in 1353 or 1354, at a council in Serres.  This second part was half the size and at times cited issues from the first part, referring it to the "first Code".

Some parts of the code:
On the Law

Further commandeth our Imperial Majesty:

Should our Imperial Majesty write a letter

Out of wrath, or out of love

Or out of mercy for any one,

And should such a letter contravene the Code

And be at variance with the law and justice

As set down in the Code,

The judges

Shall not comply therewith

But shall judge

And act withal as justice commandenth.

On Poor Women

Any poor woman unable to litigate

Or defend herself shall choose an attorney

Who shall speak on her behalf.

The poorest hemp-spinstress shall be as free as a priest shall.

On Prisoners

Whoso escapeth from prison to the Imperial Court, be he a serf of the Crown, or of the Church, or of a nobleman, shall by the act itself be set free; should he be bearing any gifts for the man to whom he hath escaped, he shall return them to the man from whom he hath escaped.

Whoso escapeth from the prison at our Imperial Court to the patriarchal court shall be set free; also shall be set free any man who escapeth from the patriarchal prison to the Imperial Court.

Also, should any one give shelter to a man from a foreign land, and that man be a fugitive from his master of from justice holding our imperial letter of clemency, said letter shall not be contested; should he hold no such letter, he shall be returned wherefrom he hath escaped.

A bit strange, but very performative.     

Taubira

Equally strange, given the date, but no doubt performative, was that on the 21^st May 2001 the French Taubira Law was enacted.

Christiane Taubira or Christiane Taubira-Delannon  is a French politician, and, from 15 May 2012, the Minister of Justice in the new Ayrault government, under President Hollande. President of her party Walwari, she has served as a deputy at the French National Assembly since 1993, and was re-elected in 1997. In 1994, she became a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), being the fourth on the Energie Rdicale list led by Bernard Tapie. In June 1997, she then joined the Socialist Party (PS), and then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin (PS) commissioned her for a report on gold search in Guiana.

Christiane Taubira gave her name to the 21^st May 2001 law that recognizes the Atlantic Slave Trade and slavery as a crime against humanity.