THE RECEPTION OF GRECO-ROMAN (BYZANTINE) PRIVATE LAW IN DUŠAN’S LEGISLATION
THE RECEPTION OF GRECO-ROMAN (BYZANTINE) PRIVATE LAW IN DUŠAN’S LEGISLATION

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, the author analyzes the development of private law in medieval Serbia during the reign of Emperor Dušan. The author particularly underscores the enormous influence of the developed Byzantine private law on the Serbian medieval legal system, through the translation of Byzantine legal sources and the compilation of specific Serbian law collections. Dušan’s legislation consists of Dušan’s Code, the Syntagma of Matthew Blastares, and the so-called Law of Emperor Justinian. Dušan’s Code does not contain many private-law norms. The Syntagma is an original Byzantine legal compendium which, by order of Emperor Dušan, was translated into Old Serbian, and it encompasses all branches of Roman private law. Justinian’s Law represents a Serbian compilation of Byzantine legal texts and, to the greatest extent, contains provisions of private law. The expansion of the Serbian state during Emperor Dušan’s great conquests also created the need for a new codification of law—especially private law—which had in fact begun earlier with the enactment of Saint Sava’s Zakonopravilo (Nomocanon). Blastares’ Syntagma contains an entire system of developed Roman-Byzantine private law and, as the most extensive legal document, occupies a central place in the author’s study.

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