A Byzantine Delegated Justice: Ancient Procedures and Medieval Practices

The legal procedures in force in Byzantium are, in theory, essentially based on Roman law. However, over the course of its thousand-year history, it seems difficult to believe that the Roman written laws compiled in the 6th century were applied perpetually without any form of adaptation. This paper intends to examine the evolution and mutation of an institutional and procedural aspect of the administration of justice in Byzantium, the delegation of judgement, in order to establish whether medieval Byzantine justice operated according to the framework established in ancient Rome. The delegation of a judicial decision by the emperor or a magistrate to a third party is an ancient judicial mechanism that was widely used in the Roman judicial system. It is very precisely defined in law by jurists and in imperial constitutions. The first step will be to track the transmission and understanding of the provisions concerning the delegation of jurisdiction from the works of Justinian to Byzantine legal compilations. This medieval legal framework will then help us in analysing Byzantine judicial practice. Indeed, many court decisions preserved in monastic archives, particularly from the 13th century onwards, are acts performed pursuant to a delegation of judicial authority by a provincial governor or by the emperor himself. An analysis of the terms used to designate this mechanism of delegation, as well as a study of the individuals involved in these delegations (clerics and aristocrats), will enable us to refine our understanding of the use of written Byzantine Law in the administration. It will also help us to assess whether the Byzantine system of judicial delegation was still based on Roman foundations or whether other medieval characteristics, particularly those related to the social relations between delegators and delegates, have emerged, giving rise to a judicial delegation system that is uniquely Byzantine.