Letter from Slobodan Jovanović to Nikola Pašić, Stojan Protić, and Ljubomir Davidović

Friends and esteemed colleagues,

I am writing to you to urge exploration of ideas of federalism as we move into the process of drafting the constitution for our new state. While our Serbian Kingdom has had a long entrenched legal tradition dating back to the code of Tsar Stefan Dušan, the Croatian and Slovenian delegations, having never been subject to the Ottoman yoke, have developed along the western European lines of jurisprudence, something that our jurors are not well-versed in.

Indeed, I believe that I may be the only man in Serbia who even knows of the Western legal concepts that the Croats will bring to the table. I know that our goals for a unitary state are important to us as Serbs, but for the future of the stability of our state, we must do studies into the feasibility and prospect of federalism, as well as acquiring western experts to educate our jurists in the concepts of “federalism,” “confederalism,” “autonomous regions,” etc. all of that jurisprudence is terra incognita for us.

This is all, should you need any assistance in the constitutional process, the doors of my practice are open.

Yours,

Slobodan Jovanović.

Letter from Nikola Pašić to Josip Smodlaka

Dr. Smodlaka,

I urge you to stop using the phrase “Yugoslav” to discuss our state. We are the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes as decided by the delegation at Corfu. They did not choose the name Yugoslavia. The Serbian people have not accepted the name “Yugoslavia” and you are outside of your powers to impose your position on the majority.

-Pašić