Although future Byzantine codes and constitutions derived largely from Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis, their main objectives were idealistic and ceremonial rather than practical.
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.
[4] Although Byzantine law structure had largely a Roman constitutional body, the main difference of Byzantine law from its Roman counterpart was both in its application and interpretation which were subject and applied under different Hellenistic and Orthodox principles shared between the Byzantine academic currículum,[5] developing a legal system that encouraged different interpretations of law according to philanthropy and evergetia rather than the application of justice itself, acting for the well-being and benefit of the population rather than for the correct structuring of society.
Said customs and constitutions instituted greater influence at Christianity's arrival, being included in Justinian's novels which dictated that the law should be interpreted on the basis of philanthropy and piety[7] as the emperors of the Macedonian dynasty had acted against the constant abuses and evasions of the dynatoi by imposing the allelengyon or through the different establishment of humanitarian and monastic institutions across the empire.
By the time the Ecloga and the Basilika were being codified, a further increase in Hellenistic and Christian values were also put into practice, all death penalties were replaced with amputations and severe economic sanctions while making further clarifications and references to the different Orthodox and Hellenistic concepts like that the judge should not only be the law incarnate, but also had to interpret it on the basis of "philanthrōpía" and "evergetikós".
[7] Thus, verdicts were applied being directly influenced by the different values, ethics and philosophies of their Orthodox social environment and not by the legal provisions of the code books, resulting in the misapplication and misinterpretation of a theoretically and strictly non-malleable Roman law.
In the late Roman era the legislative interest of the emperors intensified, and laws were now regulating the main aspects of public, private, economic and social life.
[14] Legal practice would become much more pragmatic and, as knowledge of Latin in the Empire waned, direct use of Justinian's "Corpus Juris Civilis" would be abandoned in favor of summaries, commentaries, and new compilations written in Greek.
The changes in the internal life of the empire that occurred in the years following the publication of Justinian's code called for a review of the legislation, so as to meet the requirements of the times.
"Ecloga", referring to both the civil and criminal law constituted, as was declared in the title, a "rectification (of the Justinian legislation) towards a more philanthropic version".
The membership of the editing committee is not known, but its primary mission was, on the one hand, to modify those dispositions not to be aligned with the current times and, on the other, to prevent judges from taking money for their actions and to help them to solve cases properly.
"Ecloga" constituted the basic handbook of justice dispensation up to the days of the Macedonian emperors, that also assumed legislative activity, whereas later it influenced the ecclesiastic law of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Patria potestas is decreasing its power influenced by Hellenistic and canon laws and the rights of women and children are increasing.
With the exception of a few cities, and especially Constantinople, where other types of urban economic activities were also developed, Byzantine society remained at its heart agricultural.
[18] In the Digesta seu Pandectae (533) codification ordered by Justinian I (527–565) of the Eastern Roman Empire, an opinion written by the Roman jurist Paulus in approximately 235 AD at the beginning of the Crisis of the Third Century (235–284) was included about the Lex Rhodia ("Rhodian law") that articulates the general average principle of marine insurance established on the island of Rhodes in approximately 1000 to 800 BC, plausibly by the Phoenicians during the proposed Dorian invasion and emergence of the purported Sea Peoples during the Greek Dark Ages (c. 1100–c.
The "In Trullo" or "Fifth-Sixth Council", known for its canons, was convened in the years of Justinian II (691–692) and occupied itself exclusively with matters of discipline.
The influence of these canons carried on in the future and they were extensively annotated by Balsamon, Zonaras and Aristenos, the three great ecclesiastic jurists of the 12th century.
Later, more-scientific collections emerged, including: All of these books were compiled later by the Athonite monk Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite and became the basis of the modern Eastern Orthodox canon law, his Pedalion.
[30] 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.
[31] Slavic legal traditions, including countries ranging from Bulgaria to Russia, were substantially influenced by the Farmer's Law.
During the European Renaissance, Western scholars embraced Justinian's Code as a basis for jurisprudence, shunning many of the later legal developments of the Byzantine Empire such as the Ecloga.