The so-called Byzantine Empire, which existed for more than a thousand years with Constantinople as its capital, demonstrates the birth of a new world with the wedding of Western and Eastern traditions. This study of Byzantine legal texts, mainly from the 6th to the 11th centuries, illustrates this clearly, following the evolution of Roman law into Byzantine law. By outlining and analysing the influence of various historical, social, and religious factors on this progression, the present handbook not only presents a condensed picture of the evolution of law in the area beyond the Adriatic Sea, but also indirectly sheds light on Byzantine society more broadly.

Contributors are: Kalliopi (Kelly) A. Bourdara, Wolfram Brandes, Zachary Chitwood, Giuseppe Falcone, Andreas Gkoutzioukostas, Fausto Goria, Vasileios-Alexandros Kollias, Alexander I. Liarmacopulus, Valerio Massimo Minale, Eleftheria Sp. Papagianni, Kalliopi Papakonstantinou, Daphne Penna, Peter Sarris, Dieter Simon, Marios Th. Tantalos, Spyros Troianos(†), and Thomas Ernst van Bochove.