UVA, department of modern Greek Language and Culture

Description

Law in disguise. Some observations regarding the role of Byzantine law in the genesis of the codes in South-Eastern Europe during the 19th century, Amsterdam UVA, Varia colleges Department of Modern Greek Language and Culture

ABSTRACT: The end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century was marked by the general interest in the concept of codes. The most known national codes were the codes of Prussia (1794), the code Napoléon (1804) and the code of Austria (1811). Roughly in the same period codification activities took place also in the South-Eastern part of Europe. The result of these codification activities were for example, the codes of Moldavia (1817) and that of Wallachia (1818) which were written in Greek. Later on, during the Greek independence war and the early years of the formation of the Greek State (1821-1824), Greek leaders were also interested in drafting up a code and many texts have preserved documenting this. It is interesting that in both Western and Eastern parts of Europe roughly in the same period codification activities take place. Was there an influence of the Western European codes on the codification activities in the broader region of the Balkans in this period? At the same time, South-Eastern Europe was the place where Byzantine law had been in use for such a long time. Did the code activities in this area form a breach from or a continuation of Byzantine law? The whole subject is a complicated one and requires a considerable time of studying all the relevant material which consists of so many languages. In this lecture I will attempt only a first approach in handling these questions. I will mainly focus on the introductory acts to the codes of Moldavia and Walachia which give information on the law that was used in these codes. I will furthermore discuss an episode connected to the involvement of Jeremy Bentham in the drafting of a Greek code during the Greek independence war in the period 1821-1824, which offers some information on the use of Byzantine law by some Greek jurists. Especially the role of the Phanariotes will be discussed. The ideological use of Byzantine law is evident.

Period	4-Apr-2014
Visiting	UVA, department of modern Greek Language and Culture