Principles of Civil Procedure in the Eastern Roman Empire in the 11th century (Based on the Judicial Practice of Eustathios Rhomaios)

 The purpose of this article is to show that the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) preserved both the Roman court system, improving it, and the principles of judicial procedure in civil law cases outlined by Emperor Justinian I in Corpus Juris Civilis in the sixth century.

We can see it during studying the extant judicial practice of the Byzantine jurist, judge of the Supreme Imperial Court in the 11th century, Eustathios Rhomaios. It was recently republished with translation and detailed comments by the German researcher D. Simon.

Judicial experience (“Peira”) of Eustathios Rhomaios shows that he used in his practice all principles of civil procedure such as legality, equality before the law and the court, the conduct of legal proceedings within a reasonable time, the adversarial nature of the parties, and the principle of fairness. All of them are still significant in the work of the judicial system. Their presence in byzantine courts allows us to conclude about the high level of development of jurisprudence in the Eastern Roman Empire in the

11th century and beyond.