FACULTY OF LAW IN SUBOTICA – “NORTHERN STAR” OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE KINGDOM OF YUGOSLAVIA

Abstract

The paper presents the results of the research on the conditions, aims and outcomes of the establishment of the Faculty of Law in Subotica immediately after the First World War, at the time when the southeastern part of former Hungary considered Serbian Vojvodina became the northeastern part of the newly established Yugoslav state. This is the first institution of higher education in this area. At the beginning of the 1920s two branches of the University of Belgrade were established away from the capital, one in the northeast, and the other in the southeast of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (SCS). The establishment of the Faculty of Law in Subotica and the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje was explained by the need to enable young people living far from Belgrade to gain higher education in the closer surroundings. In reality, the Faculty of Law in Subotica had the task of becoming a clearly recognizable and dignified border fortress. University teachers and students were expected to be sophisticated guardians of the north-eastern border of the Yugoslav kingdom. At approximately the same time, two reputable universities in Hungary, whose headquarters after the First World War remained outside Hungary, in Romania and Czechoslovakia, moved to towns near the new southeastern borders. The paper presents examples that in a special way testify of the problems and dilemmas that teachers and students of the Faculty of Law faced during the interwar period, as well as arguments to support the claim that the national mission of the Faculty of Law in Subotica significantly limited the academic autonomy of this institution of higher education.