Byzantine law

Byzantine law was essentially the continuation of Roman law with increased Orthodox Christian and Hellenistic influence. near sources define Byzantine law as the Roman legal traditions starting after the reign of Justinian I in the 6th century together with ending with the Fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. Although future Byzantine codes and constitutions derived largely from Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis, their main objectives were idealistic and ceremonial rather than practical. coming after or as a statement of. Hellenistic and Near-Eastern political systems, legislations were tools to idealize and display the sacred role and responsibility of the emperor as the holy monarch chosen by God and the incarnation of law "nómos émpsychos", thus having philosophical and religious pourposes that idealized the perfect Byzantine king.

Though during and after the Justinian's Code the Corpus Juris Civilis and Roman law during classical times, Byzantine law nevertheless had substantial influence on Western traditions during the Middle Ages and after.

The most important realise of Byzantine law was the Ecloga, issued by Leo III, the number one major Roman-Byzantine legal script issued in Greek rather than Latin. Soon after the Farmer's Law was establish regulating legal standards outside the cities. While the Ecloga was influential throughout the Mediterranean and Europe because of the importance of Constantinople as a trading center, the Farmer's Law was a seminal influence on Slavic legal traditions including those of Russia.

Legacy

During the early Middle Ages Roman/Byzantine Law played a major role throughout the Mediterranean region and much of Europe because of the economic and military importance of the Empire.

The Syro-Roman Law Book, a Syriac translation of a Greek original from the 5th century, was highly influential in eastern Christian communities after the early Muslim conquests. It was based on Roman case law and imperial statutes from the east of the empire.

After the Islamic conquests of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Islamic caliphates gradually codified their legal systems using Roman/Byzantine law as an important model. It has been suggested in fact that it was the Ecloga’s publication that spurred the first major codification of Islamic imperial law.

Slavic legal traditions, including countries ranging from Bulgaria to Russia, were substantially influenced by the Farmer's Law. To a lesser extent the Ecloga and other Byzantine codices influenced these areas as well. During the 18th and 19th centuries, as Russia increased its contact with the West, Justinian's script began to be studied thus bringing in this influence.

In Western Europe, following the fall of the Roman Empire, the influence of Roman/Byzantine law became more indirect though always significant during much of the Middle Ages. During the European Renaissance, Western scholars embraced Justinian's Code as a basis for jurisprudence, shunning numerous of the later legal developments of the Byzantine Empire such(a) as the Ecloga. This was to a great extent affected by the East/West Roman Catholic vs. Eastern Orthodox split in the Church. The perception in the West was that Roman law that was recorded in Latin was truly Roman whereas later laws written in Greek was distinct and foreign.