Byzantine Culture

History · Guide

Byzantine Law and its Modern Influence

Explore Byzantine law and its profound influence on the modern legal world, from the Justinian Code to the modern civil law tradition of continental Europe. Learn about the Corpus Juris Civilis and its legacy.

The Byzantine legal tradition, founded on the codification of Roman law under Emperor Justinian I in the sixth century, was one of the most powerful and most enduring legacies of the Byzantine Empire. The Corpus Juris Civilis, the great compilation of Roman law prepared under Justinian, became the foundation of the legal tradition of the Eastern Roman Empire, and after the fall of the Byzantine state, it was rediscovered in the West and became the basis of the civil law tradition of continental Europe. The modern legal systems of dozens of countries, from France to Germany to Japan to Argentina, are direct descendants of the Byzantine codification, and the influence of the Justinian Code on the modern legal world is one of the most remarkable examples of cultural transmission in world history.

This exploration of Byzantine law and its modern influence traces the development of the Byzantine legal tradition from the codification of Justinian through the Macedonian revival and the Palaiologan period, and it examines the influence of the tradition on the modern legal world.

The Justinianic Codification

The Background

The codification of Roman law under Emperor Justinian I was one of the most ambitious legal projects in world history. The legal tradition of Rome had accumulated over a millennium, and by the sixth century, it was a chaotic mass of imperial constitutions, senatorial decrees, juristic writings, and customary law. The task of bringing order to this mass was entrusted to a commission of jurists, headed by Tribonian, the quaestor of the sacred palace, the chief legal officer of the empire.

The result of the commission’s work was the Corpus Juris Civilis, the “Body of Civil Law,” which was published in four parts between 529 and 534. The four parts were the Codex, a compilation of imperial constitutions from Hadrian to Justinian; the Digest, a synthesis of the writings of the classical Roman jurists; the Institutes, a textbook for use in legal education; and the Novellae, the new laws issued by Justinian himself.

The four parts of the Corpus were not simply a compilation. The commission was empowered to make changes, to eliminate contradictions, to update archaic language, and to harmonize the law with Christian principles. The result was a comprehensive legal code that was intended to be the definitive statement of Roman law, and that has been the most important legal text in the history of Western civilization.

The Four Parts

The Codex Justinianus, the first part of the Corpus, was a compilation of imperial constitutions from Hadrian to Justinian. The code was organized by subject, with the material divided into twelve books, each book further divided into titles, and each title containing a number of constitutions on the same subject. The code was the most important source of the imperial law, and it was the basis of the legal practice in the Eastern Roman Empire.

The Digest, the most important part of the Corpus, was a synthesis of the writings of the classical Roman jurists, including Ulpian, Paulus, Papinian, and many others. The Digest was organized in fifty books, with the material divided into titles on the same subject. The Digest was the most sophisticated legal text in the Corpus, and it was the principal source of the theoretical foundations of the civil law tradition.

The Institutes, the third part of the Corpus, was a textbook for use in legal education, modeled on the Institutes of Gaius, a second-century legal textbook. The Institutes were organized in four books, with the material divided into titles on the basic principles of the law, including the law of persons, the law of things, the law of actions, and the law of obligations. The Institutes were the principal textbook of Roman law for centuries, and they have been the model for legal textbooks in the civil law tradition.

The Novellae, the fourth part of the Corpus, was a collection of the new laws issued by Justinian himself, in Latin and in Greek. The Novellae were the most directly applicable part of the Corpus, and they dealt with a wide range of subjects, including the law of marriage, the law of inheritance, the law of contract, the law of procedure, and the law of the church. The Novellae were especially important in the development of the Byzantine legal tradition, since they were the principal source of the law in the period after the publication of the Codex and the Digest.

The Survival of the Code in the Byzantine Empire

The Basilica

The Justinianic code was the principal legal text of the Byzantine Empire for the next several centuries, but the code was not used in its original form. The Latin text of the code was gradually translated into Greek, the language of the Eastern Empire, and the code was adapted to the conditions of the Greek-speaking world. The most important adaptation was the Basilica, the great legal code of the Macedonian dynasty, prepared under the direction of Emperor Leo VI the Wise in the late ninth and early tenth centuries.

The Basilica, named after the Stoa Basileios, the royal portico of Constantinople, was a comprehensive Greek translation and adaptation of the Justinianic code. The Basilica was organized in sixty books, with the material divided into titles on the same subjects as the Justinianic code. The Basilica incorporated the most important parts of the Justinianic code, including the Digest, the Codex, the Institutes, and the Novellae, and it added the new laws of the Macedonian period, including the Eisagoge, the Prochiron, and the Ecloga.

The Basilica was the principal legal text of the Byzantine Empire for the next several centuries, and it was the basis of the legal education and the legal practice in the empire. The Basilica was supplemented by a series of legal commentaries, including the commentaries of the jurists of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, which developed the principles of the Basilica in detail.

The Macedonian Codes

The Macedonian period saw a series of legal codes, including the Eisagoge (the “Introduction”) of Basil I, the Prochiron (the “Handbook”) of the same emperor, and the Ecloga (the “Selection”) of Leo III. The Macedonian codes were intended to make the law more accessible to the general population, and they were often simpler and more practical than the Basilica.

The Eisagoge, the Prochiron, and the Ecloga were the principal legal texts used in the Byzantine Empire in the ninth and tenth centuries, and they were the basis of the legal education in the Macedonian period. The Macedonian codes were eventually superseded by the Basilica, but they continued to be used in the Byzantine provinces, and they had an important influence on the legal traditions of the Slavic world.

The Diffusion of Byzantine Law in the Slavic World

The Byzantine legal tradition had a profound influence on the legal traditions of the Slavic world, especially on the Russian legal tradition. The Russian Primary Chronicle, the first chronicle of the Russian state, attributes the introduction of the Christian faith and the law to the same event, the baptism of Vladimir in 988. The Russian law was, in fact, deeply influenced by Byzantine law, and the Russian legal codes, including the Russkaya Pravda and the Sudebnik of 1497, drew on Byzantine principles.

The Russkaya Pravda, the first Russian legal code, was compiled in the late tenth or early eleventh century, and it contained a mixture of Slavic customary law and Byzantine legal principles. The code was supplemented by a series of later legal codes, including the Church Statute of Vladimir, which organized the law of the Russian church on the basis of Byzantine canon law, and the Church Statute of Yaroslav, which dealt with the law of marriage and the family.

The Russian legal tradition was, throughout its history, deeply influenced by the Byzantine inheritance. The Russian tsars claimed to be the heirs of the Byzantine emperors, and the Russian legal tradition claimed to be the heir of the Roman law. The Russian legal tradition was eventually codified in the Sobornoe Ulozhenie of 1649, the great legal code of the Romanov period, which drew on Byzantine, Slavic, and Western legal principles.

The Byzantine legal tradition also influenced the legal traditions of the Balkan states, including Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania. The Bulgarian Empire, the second Bulgarian Empire, the Serbian Empire, and the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia all adopted elements of the Byzantine legal tradition, and the legal texts of these states were often based on Byzantine models.

The most important example of the Byzantine influence on Balkan law is the Serbian legal code of Tsar Stefan Dušan, the Zakonik, promulgated in 1349. The Zakonik was a comprehensive legal code that combined Byzantine legal principles with Serbian customary law, and it was the most important legal text of the medieval Serbian state. The Zakonik was influenced by the Macedonian codes, especially the Eisagoge and the Prochiron, and it adapted these Byzantine texts to the conditions of the Serbian state.

The Romanian legal tradition was also deeply influenced by Byzantine law, especially in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, which were under Byzantine suzerainty for much of the medieval period. The Romanian legal texts, including the Romanian legal code of Matei Basarab and the Moldavian legal code of Vasile Lupu, were based on Byzantine models, and they were the basis of the Romanian legal tradition until the modern period.

The Rediscovery of the Justinianic Code in the West

The Bologna School

The rediscovery of the Justinianic code in the West was one of the most important events in the history of Western European law. The code had been lost in the Latin West during the early Middle Ages, and the Western legal tradition had been based on the customary law of the Germanic peoples, on the canon law of the Western church, and on a few Roman law texts, including the Breviary of Alaric and the Lex Romana Burgundionum.

The rediscovery began in the late eleventh century at the school of law in Bologna, founded by the jurist Irnerius. Irnerius and his students rediscovered the Digest of Justinian, and they began to study it intensively, using the methods of textual analysis that had been developed in the study of the Bible and the Latin classics. The school of Bologna became the most important center of legal study in the West, and the rediscovery of the Digest, together with the rest of the Corpus Juris Civilis, transformed the Western legal tradition.

The school of Bologna produced a series of glosses, or commentaries, on the Corpus, and the work of the glossators, including Irnerius, Accursius, and many others, established the methods of legal study that would dominate the Western legal tradition for centuries. The glossators developed the principles of the Corpus in detail, and they applied these principles to the cases that came before the courts. The glossators also wrote commentaries on the canon law, and the work of the school of Bologna was the basis of the development of the Western legal tradition.

The Commentators

The work of the glossators was continued by the commentators, or post-glossators, of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The most important of the commentators was Bartolus of Sassoferrato, who taught at the University of Perugia and whose commentaries on the Corpus were the most influential legal texts of the late Middle Ages. The commentators developed a sophisticated methodology for applying the principles of the Corpus to the cases that came before the courts, and they produced a series of influential legal opinions, the consilia, that were widely cited in the courts of the Latin West.

The commentators were the most important legal scholars of the late Middle Ages, and their work was the basis of the legal education in the universities of the Latin West. The commentators applied the principles of the Corpus to the cases that came before the courts, and they developed a sophisticated methodology for the interpretation of the legal texts. The commentators’ work was, in turn, the basis of the work of the humanist jurists of the sixteenth century, who subjected the Corpus to a more rigorous philological and historical criticism.

The Modern Civil Law Tradition

The Napoleonic Code

The most important development of the modern civil law tradition was the codification of French law under Napoleon Bonaparte in the early nineteenth century. The Napoleonic Code, promulgated in 1804, was a comprehensive civil code that drew heavily on the Roman law tradition, especially the Justinianic Corpus. The Napoleonic Code was the model for the civil codes of dozens of countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it was the basis of the modern civil law tradition of continental Europe.

The Napoleonic Code was organized in three books, dealing with the law of persons, the law of property, and the law of obligations. The code was a comprehensive statement of the civil law, and it was designed to be applicable to all the citizens of France, regardless of their regional or social background. The code was a major achievement of the French Revolution, and it was one of the most important legal texts of the modern period.

The Napoleonic Code was the model for the civil codes of Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania, and many other countries. The code was also the model for the civil codes of Latin America, including the civil codes of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. The Napoleonic Code was, in this sense, the most influential legal text of the nineteenth century, and it is one of the most important legal texts in the modern world.

The German Civil Code

The other major development of the modern civil law tradition was the German civil code, the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, promulgated in 1900. The German civil code was the most sophisticated legal code of the modern period, and it drew heavily on the Roman law tradition, especially the Justinianic Corpus and the work of the commentators.

The German civil code was the work of a commission of jurists appointed by the German government, and the code was the result of a long process of legal scholarship that went back to the rediscovery of the Corpus in the eleventh century. The German civil code was organized in five books, dealing with the general principles of the civil law, the law of obligations, the law of property, the law of family, and the law of succession. The code was a comprehensive statement of the civil law, and it was the most sophisticated legal text of the modern period.

The German civil code was the model for the civil codes of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Greece, Turkey, and many other countries. The German civil code was also the model for the civil code of Switzerland, the Zivilgesetzbuch, which was promulgated in 1907 and which is one of the most influential legal texts of the modern period. The German civil code was, in this sense, one of the most important legal texts of the modern world, and it was a major element of the legal tradition of continental Europe.

The Modern Greek Civil Code

The most direct descendant of the Byzantine legal tradition in the modern world is the modern Greek Civil Code, the Astikos Kodikas, which was promulgated in 1946 and which came into force in 1946. The modern Greek Civil Code is essentially a version of the German civil code, with some adaptations to the conditions of Greek law, and it is the most direct legal heir of the Byzantine tradition in the modern world.

The modern Greek Civil Code is the result of a long process of legal development that began with the codification of Roman law under Justinian, continued through the Macedonian codes and the Basilica, and culminated in the modern civil code. The Greek Civil Code is a direct descendant of the Justinianic Corpus, and it is the most important legal text in the modern Greek state.

Conclusion

The Byzantine legal tradition was one of the most powerful and most enduring legacies of the Byzantine Empire. The codification of Roman law under Justinian, the compilation of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the development of the Basilica and the Macedonian codes, the diffusion of the tradition in the Slavic world, the rediscovery of the Corpus in the West, and the development of the modern civil law tradition are all parts of a continuous story of legal development that has shaped the modern legal world. The modern legal systems of dozens of countries, from France to Germany to Greece to Japan to Argentina, are direct descendants of the Byzantine codification, and the influence of the Justinian Code on the modern legal world is one of the most remarkable examples of cultural transmission in world history.

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