It was originally printed under the name Rules of Speech (Правила Говора) in Serbian at Raška, Serbia, in two successive issues, one for Wallachia and another for Transylvania (in 1640).

In 920, the Nomocanon of Photios was proclaimed an official law document of the Christian Church by the four eastern patriarchs at their council in Constantinople.

The Liber Sclavorum qui dicitur Methodius included two codexes – Methodius's translation of the Nomocanon by John Scholasticus and Slavic alternation of the Eclogue [sr; de; fr] (Zakon Sudnyi Liudem) The Eclogue is a Byzantine codex dating from the mid-eighth century.

Saint Sava expanded the boundaries of social justice, confronting the norms of Byzantine civil law and slave society.

He accentuated the Christian teaching of social justice, justifying it by saying that norms should serve a man and not the public interest.

This regulation proclaimed the equality of all people regardless of their financial or social status, it forbade allow oppression, and it strove for welfare.

Shelter of the poor and the role of noble homes is mentioned in chapter 48, in the section "On court and justice", which was taken from Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Shelter and assistance for the most endangered (the poor) was defined as ethical and just, while glorifying the rich and powerful was unethical and unacceptable.

This is known from some tsar's decrees, for instance: Emperor Theodosius I wrote to Constantinople's ecdic saying he should not let peasants and citizens be oppressed by taxes, that he should repress the arrogance of archonts and care for his people as he does his children.

Because of the importance of this role, laws were created to regulate the elections of ecdics, with the participation of respectable citizens and led by bishop and clergy.

Another protection mechanism is mentioned in the second chapter of Zakonopravilo, taken from the Proheiron: "If the self-supporting man is involved in a lawsuit with his guardian, it is necessary he seeks help."

One of the most important ways of protecting the poor is the building of noble homes (churches, monasteries, hospices, public kitchens, residences of the impoverished, hospitals).

Ways of making a lease contract were specified, for example by having the administrative staff of the noble home swear an oath in front of a bishop promising no damage would be caused.

Zakonopravilo lays down the rules of inheritance for children whose (non-monsastic) father died and who now live with a poor mother or mother-in-law.

Since ageing usually comes with disease and weakness, the author's aim was to provide respect and legal protection for this category of people.

He also added, "If any clergyman imitates or ridicules the blind, the deaf or the lame, or those crippled in any other way – he shall be deposed because he is an offense to God who created him."

Roman marriage law enabled a relatively easy divorce by written statement (labellum repudii) or by agreement (divortum ex consensu).

Byzantine marriage law had difficulty in freeing itself from its Roman heritage, until Emperor Justinian made important limitations to the novellae in 542, which were later transferred to the Nomocanon in 14 titles (47th chapter).

When it comes to families of priests, Zakonopavilo dictates that if a presbyter or a deacon banishes his wife (for example by excusing himself with piety) and decides not to take her back, his title will be taken away.

He prescribes part of a novella written by Emperor Leo VI the Wise which states that if a man has an insane wife who does not recover within three years, he has the right to divorce her.

After that, chapter 11 of Proheiron lists reasons for which a woman can request a divorce: if the husband is working against the state or knows anyone that is without revealing it, if he does anything to harm the wife in any way, or if he forces her to be unfaithful.

Situations in which they are punished equally include when one puts the other's life at risk, in which case the crime is revealed to the public and immediate retaliation is requested.

According to the Book of Tsar,[5][circular reference] a person that defamed a virgin has their nose cut off and is obliged to give a third of their assets to the woman.

In the aim of releasing captives it was allowed for anyone (older than 18) to take gold as a loan and pawn his own or prisoner's belongings.

If not, and if the slave decided to leave the church and start living a worldly life, a master was allowed to regain power over him for a one-year period.

In order to overcome this problem and organize the legal system after acquiring religious independence, Saint Sava finished Zakonopravilo in 1219.

Saint Sava most likely brought an already written nomocanon to Nicaea, when he traveled there in 1219 to request independence for the Serbian church from the Patriarch of Constantinople.

He most likely began in 1208 while at Mount Athos, using the Synopsis of Stephen of Ephesus; Nomocanon of John Scholasticus; Nomocanon in 14 Titles; the documents of the Ecumenical Councils, which he modified with the canonical commentaries of Aristinos and John Zonaras; local church meetings; the rules of the Holy Fathers; the law of Moses, translation of the Proheiron and the Byzantine emperors' Novellae (most were taken from Justinian's Novellae).

Around the beginning of the 19th century when Montenegro started developing characteristics of an independent country, Petar I Petrović-Njegoš made a Codex of 33 lines (Законик у 33 пункта).

The numbering was done by Aleksandar Solovjev, who prepared the edition of the codex and wrote both a juridical and historical commentary on it, in the Glas ('Voice') of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.