The problem of studying the Montenegrin legislation of the early 20th century: normative and sociological approaches

The author of the article considers the development of Montenegrin law in the 19th - early 20th centuries and tries to assess the results of the legislative activities of the Montenegrin authorities, that issued new regulations and carried out large-scale codification work on regular basis. From the point of view of the normative approach, widely used in legal science, these activities seemed quite successful; the laws that met urgent needs of the state's development were created within short periods of time. However according to the sociological approach, one has to admit that the significant part of Montenegrin legislation was just a formality and was hardly implemented in practice.