Description: This handbook explores the merging of the Greco-Roman world with Christian and Eastern legal traditions in the Byzantine Empire, which culturally and politically dominated the Eastern Mediterranean for over a thousand years and the lasting influence of which can still be seen in Southeastern Europe today.
Review Quotes: "...This book is, therefore, a very welcome and timely contribution that will be useful to anyone who wishes to catch up with the state of research in the field. The structure and writing style make it accessible to established scholars, postgraduate students, and advanced undergraduates [...]
...if one approaches this volume mainly as a companion to research in Byzantine civil law sources, it is an outstanding accomplishment. The editors and authors are to be commended on the successful completion of what must have been an arduous task. The product is a highly informative volume that finally makes research in Byzantine legal history accessible in English to a non-specialist audience for the first time. It will doubtless become the standard reference work on the subject for many years to come." - James Morton, Department of History, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, in: Journal of Medieval History 52/1 (2026), pp. 147-148 [DOI: 10.14296/RiH/2014/1631]
"...One great strength of the volume is in its ability to speak clearly to the novice while remaining relevant even to the specialist. Contributors are consistently successful in presenting their material in ways that do not assume any prior knowledge, making the entire volume suitable for the classroom or other beginners. [...] Paired with Daphne Penna and Roos Meijering's A Sourcebook on Byzantine Law: Illustrating Byzantine Law through the Sources (Brill, 2022), students and scholars alike have a veritable introductory course to Byzantine law at their fingertips. The field is certainly more accessible than ever, both to specialists and non-specialists alike. Spyros Troianos, to whom the volume is dedicated, passed away in January 2024. The present volume is a fitting tribute to Troianos's monumental, lifelong work of demystifying Byzantine law and making it more available to others." - Nathan Leidholm, Bilkent University, in: The Medieval Review (2026), 26.03.15, published online: Full review