It was enacted on 6 April 1844, modeled mostly after the Civil Code of Austria, during the reign of the Defenders of the Constitution and Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević.
The initial title of the Serbian Civil Code was „Zakonik građanski(j) za Knjažestvo Srbiju“.
The committee’s work focused on translating foreign laws, whose content didn’t match contemporary Serbia’s situation and needs.
The task was even avoided and taken involuntarily, as the committee members were aware of their lack of expertise which was required for the undertaking in question.
Afterward, Prince Miloš entrusted the creation of the Code to a respectable lawyer and writer Jovan Hadžić, and the mayor of Zemun, Vasilije Lazarević.
They pointed out the inconsistent understanding of property, as well as the injustice when it comes to omitting female children from the hereditary order.
[12] Among the first critics of the Code were Pavle Šeroglić,[13] a Serbian lawyer from Hungary, Dimitrije Matić, a respectable law professor, Gligorije Giga Geršić, and the first serious remark came from Nikola Krstić, who influenced the Department of Justice enough for them to commence a revision procedure of the Code in 1872.
Dragoljub Aranđelović harshly criticized Jovan Hadžić and his work, stating that there has never been a worse Code enacted in Serbian history.
Most objections state that he contributed to the decomposition of the family cooperative, denied heritage rights of the daughter, limited women’s business ability, etc.
The Code was written by the first president of the Matica Srpska, lawyer and writer Jovan Hadžić at the behest of Prince Miloš Obrenović, and it was based on the model of the Austrian and French codifications of civil law and the earliest judicial reforms by Justinian, particularly through the complete revision of all Roman laws, something that had never before been done.
Hadžić was a true innovator for he envisaged success of the civil procedural law, that is of judicial system.
In 1837, under pressure from the Russians and the Constitutionalist oligarchy to provide a constitution, Miloš Obrenović appointed the best Serbian judicial minds at the time, Jovan Hadžić, and one of the most influential lawyers in Austria, to draw up a draft to be submitted to a committee.