“Regarding Law and Justice”: The First Chapter of the Byzantine Eisagoge and the First Constitutional Charter in European History

No written system of a Byzantine ‘Constitution’ appeared throughout the Byzantine period, whereas several written laws covered aspects of state law. The “titles” (chapters) 2 and 3 of the Eisagoge (Εἰσαγωγή) are considered the first and only Byzantine written legal text with a constitutional context. The Eisagoge was part of the “cleansing of the laws” campaign of the Macedonian emperors, meaning the restoration of the laws of Justinian, after the reign of the Isaurian dynasty. What has not received the importance that it deserves is chapter 1 of the Eisagoge, titled: “Regarding Law and Justice” (Περὶ νόμου καὶ δικαιοσύνης). I argue that this chapter, both by its content and its position at the beginning of the Eisagoge, alongside the following chapters of this Law, shapes the first pre-modern written legal text with constitutional importance in Western history. This was way before the American and French Constitutions (end of the 18th century) and the charters of the 17th century. It was also earlier than the charters of the late 12th to 14th centuries, which appeared in some medieval European kingdoms and empires as efforts to write down principles or rules regarding the organization and exercise of state power, mainly for certain instances or groups of citizens. However, the notion of a written law that puts the ideals of Law and Justice as the cornerstone of the State’s organization and administration, hence the first approach to a written constitution, must be recognized as a Byzantine ‘invention’ of the late 9th century. This applies, regardless of whether the Eisagoge was a promulgated law or a draft of a law. Moreover, the context of the first chapter of the Eisagoge reflects not only provisions of classical Roman Law but also ideas of Greek philosophy and rhetoric.