The Development of Law History Studies in Lithuania
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Abstract
The article describes the development of law history studies in Lithuania during the period from its very beginning in the 19th century at the Vilnius University, one of the oldest universities in the Eastern Europe, until the reinstatement of national state of Lithuania in 1990.
The period from 1922 till 1940 is considered to be the most significant period of development, as the training of lawyers was concentrated at the Law Faculty of the University of Lithuania in Kaunas. Prof. A. Janulaitis, who productively worked at the Chair of Lithuanian Law History, was the first to tackle this issue in Lithuanian language - his works created an essentially new discipline for legal studies.
During the Soviet times the education of law history was also very highly appreciated, this time not only as a discipline of legal studies, but also as an effective instrument for ideology. It was full of exposed ideology. Simultaneous teaching of Soviet law history and foreign law history aimed to create the possibility to praise the first one („socialistic“, soviet) in contrast with the other one, which was disdained as exploitative. The linkage of law history and state history provided supplementary material for course ideology.
Although in the recent years the number of students has significantly increased and there are no more ideological obstacles restricting the development of legal studies, negative trends start to appear in the development of law history: the reduction of designated hours for these disciplines, and the establishment of study classification, which has eliminated the law history from legal disciplines and assigned it to the history studies.
The period from 1922 till 1940 is considered to be the most significant period of development, as the training of lawyers was concentrated at the Law Faculty of the University of Lithuania in Kaunas. Prof. A. Janulaitis, who productively worked at the Chair of Lithuanian Law History, was the first to tackle this issue in Lithuanian language - his works created an essentially new discipline for legal studies.
During the Soviet times the education of law history was also very highly appreciated, this time not only as a discipline of legal studies, but also as an effective instrument for ideology. It was full of exposed ideology. Simultaneous teaching of Soviet law history and foreign law history aimed to create the possibility to praise the first one („socialistic“, soviet) in contrast with the other one, which was disdained as exploitative. The linkage of law history and state history provided supplementary material for course ideology.
Although in the recent years the number of students has significantly increased and there are no more ideological obstacles restricting the development of legal studies, negative trends start to appear in the development of law history: the reduction of designated hours for these disciplines, and the establishment of study classification, which has eliminated the law history from legal disciplines and assigned it to the history studies.
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Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
