History
1848Calls for a united Slovenia a Slovenian University and, as a part of this,for a Slovenian Faculty of Law to be founded in Ljubljana at the time of the “Spring of Nations”.
1849
The first Slovenian language lectures in civil and criminal law were given between March and July 1849. The idea to set up a Slovenian Faculty of Law was nurtured during the national revivalist movement called “taborsko gibanje”, although without much success. However,the introduction of the Slovenian language in courts and other offices provided the basis for developing professional legal terminology in the Slovenian language.
1888
The “Pravnik” (Lawyer) Society was established and next year it began to publish a newspaper called “Slovenian lawyer”. The Society gave great thought to the founding of the Slovenian law academy. For the future establishment of the Faculty of Law, the efforts of the then Ljubljana Mayor Ivan Hribar were of great significance. He made it possible for young gifted Slovenian professionals to be awarded annual grants from the Ministry of Education in order to prepare for teaching posts at the future university. Of the seven lawyers who received these grants, six later joined the teaching staff at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law.
1919
The Faculty of Law was founded within the University of Ljubljana. At the end of July 1919, the law was adopted that made the inception of the University of Ljubljana possible after the establishment of the first Yugoslav state. The University was composed of five faculties: a technical faculty and faculties of law, philosophy, theology and medicine. In the first year of its existence, the Faculty of Law had between 300 and 400 students, and in the second year between 500 and 600. In the first decade
the share of female students grew from 2% to 8% and reached between 8% and 18% in the second decade. The first full-time professors at the Faculty of Law (nominated on 31 August 1919) were: Dr. Ivan Žolger,Dr. Leonid Pitamic, Dr. Bogumil Vošnjak and Dr. Ivan Žmavc. The office of the Dean was first entrusted to Professor Pitamic, who began the pedagogical and scientific operation of the Faculty on 15 April 1920 with an inaugural lecture entitled “Law and Revolution”.
1920
Immediately after its foundation, the Faculty began publishing its own gazette in order to promote its stature throughout the professional circles.
1921
The Faculty of Law successfully published the Journal of Scientific Treatises, which became its regular publication.
1945 – 1950
Following Slovenia’s liberation in 1945, the Faculty renewed its work,which had not stopped during World War II but was reduced in scope for various reasons. Subsequently, the organisation of the Faculty faced several changes. Every political system seeks to influence the operation of the most important cultural institutions in the country, whilst cultural institutions try to retain their autonomy. This was particularly true of the communist period when several professors were asked to leave the
Faculty for political reasons.
1954 - 1957
The Faculty of Law was formally united with the Faculty of Economics,established in 1946, to form a single Faculty of Law and Economics for a period of three study years (1954/55 to 1956/57). Simultaneously,the reorganisation of the Faculty’s functional structure was under way (development of chairs and institutes, new statutes of the Faculty),whilst the study courses also changed a several occassions. Despite these problems, the Faculty continued with its efforts to prove it was at the very centre of legal science; one of the ways of achieving this was by inviting lecturers from foreign universities.
1980 – 2000
Recently, the Faculty’s most important defining characteristic can be found in its great contribution as a body and individuals to the (re)formation of the Republic of Slovenia’s legal system.