Ioan TOŞA, Tudor SĂLĂGEAN
Cluj-Napoca, Muzeul Etnografic al Transilvaniei
The authors present some legal habits found in the answers sent to the legal questionnaires of B. P. Hașdeu (1877) and I. Mușlea (1938).
In the first part named the Village, the authors present on the basis of the information found in the answers to the questionnaires from 1877 to 1938 the ways of villages establishment: very old, from the giants’ time, set up by the shepherds as temporary shelters, by groups of persons who left their native localities for various reasons, by landowners in order to have a workforce on their properties, through administrative measures, etc. There are presented the ways of getting the territory and delimitation by landmarks as well as the connection between this territory and the members of the community. There are also presented the social differences between the villages of free peasants and the ones with dependent peasants before and after the abolition of the serfdom as well as the elements of the belonging territory (the hearth of the village, the arable fields, the meadows, the pastures, the forest, the roads of communications).
In the end of the first part, the authors present the ways of defending the property in the traditional village.
In the second part, the Courts of Law and the Causes of Judgement in the Romanian village in the 19th century, after showing that at the introduction of the Civil Codes, the norms of coexistence between the members of the Romanian rural communities were coordinated by the church and lay courts on the basis of some customs and habits transmitted from generation to generation. The church, by its representatives, priests, was able to guide and control application of the rules of Christian coexistence, to give forgiveness of punishments.
Based on some documents, the authors present ways of choosing the village priests, the material and moral rights and obligations in the village communities as well as the duties of believers.
Concerning the lay authorities of judgements, there are presented ways of choosing their members, before and after the abolition of serfdom, the causes under the judgement and the punishments.
Keywords: legal habits, village courts of law, causes of judgement, 19th century