History of Greek Law

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The history of Greek law can be broadly divided into the history of ancient and modern Greek law. In between, the region known today as Greece was legally incorporated into the Byzantine, later into the Ottoman Empire and took part in its legal development, which was not specifically Greek in each case.

Antiquity

→ Main article Ancient Greek law

Archaic

Sources on the legal history of archaic Greece can be found mainly in myths and epics such as the Odyssey and Iliad . The scattered descriptions of Greek law show the idea of ​​an immutable law of divine origin, for the validity of which confirmation by a political authority was neither necessary nor possible. Legal disputes were brought before the king, who solved them with the help of the θέμιστες (themistes), bearers of the judgments of Zeus. From the 7th to 6th centuries BC For the first time there are records of the law. The best known are those of Lycurgus in Sparta 650, Dracon 621 in Athens, Solon 594 also in Athens, Zaleukos in southern Italy, Charondas in Sicily, Philolaos in Thebes, Pheidon in Corinth and an anonymous collection in Gortyn .

Classic

From the 5th century BC The development of classical Greek law begins. Religious notions are still of great importance, but the notion of law as static divine norms is being replaced by more flexible notions. Clear legal principles soon developed in personal, family, inheritance and property law. In addition to these autonomous legal systems of the individual Greek cities, Greek maritime trade needed its own commercial law, which was characterized by speed and low formal requirements. This common Greek maritime trade law was given its own courts of law in Athens, Rhodes, Syracuse and Marseilles. A systematic processing of Greek law, as it is typical for Roman law, did not take place: Ancient Greek law was a law of the practitioners, the λογογράφοι (logográphoi) and the συνήγοροι (synégoroi), whose task in free speech before the Lay courts existed. The philosophers Plato , Aristotle, and Theophrastus , who are of paramount importance for early legal philosophy and comparative law, have a more profound discussion of the law .

Hellenism

The duration of Hellenism, common in general history, from 323 BC. Until 30 BC BC is mostly not adopted in legal history: Classical Greek law remained at least until 146 BC. Chr. (Destruction Corinth ), sometimes even to 212 n. Chr. ( Constitutio antoniniana ) in force. The standardization of private law is characteristic of Hellenistic law. The Hellenistic private law was a common Greek law that applied to all who spoke Koine ; As was customary at the time, its validity was limited to these persons and the validity of a legal system was tied to the person: Roman law therefore applied to Roman citizens in Greece. Later, the right to choose between different legal systems was also allowed, which was regularly exercised by choosing the language of business dealings. Since the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212 AD, Roman law was formally applicable to all residents of the Roman Empire. The Hellenistic law was preserved in the enforcement of Roman law with Greek legal philosophy. It came to an end with the introduction of the Corpus Iuris Civilis in 528 AD , which became the basis for Byzantine law .

Modern

From the outbreak of the Greek Revolution in 1821 one can speak of a separate Greek law , when three liberal and democratic constitutions were enacted at short intervals in 1822, 1823 and 1827. The constitution of 1827 contained a clause according to which a civil code based on the French Code civil was to be created as soon as possible. However, the head of state Ioannis Kapodistrias ignored this passage and left Byzantine law to apply. French law was nevertheless able to assert itself in other areas: since 1807 there was a Greek translation of the French Code de Commerce , which was used by Greek traders to conduct their business. In 1823 a penal code based on the French Code pénal came into force.

After Otto von Wittelsbach ruled as absolute monarch in 1833 , he commissioned Georg Ludwig von Maurer , a supporter of the historical school , with the codification of Greek law. The code of civil procedure he developed remained in force until 1968, the court constitution until 1988, the penal code and code of criminal procedure until 1951. After Maurer's resignation in 1835, a royal decree was issued that enforced Byzantine law in the form of hexabiblos and local law for general civil law Certain customary law. Since the Hexabiblos hardly took into account the requirements of the time in many areas, the results of German Pandect Science were used as a basis for its interpretation .

A new revolution in 1862 brought George I rule over Greece, since 1864 under a new constitution that remained in force until a reform in 1911. Due to constitutional problems, a draft civil code presented in 1874, which was based on the codes of France, Italy and Saxony, never became law. Another attempt at codification failed in 1922. A new commission began its work in 1930 and presented drafts in 1937, which Georgios Balis was commissioned to coordinate in 1938 . From 1940 onwards, a civil code came into force in Greece for the first time; The basis of the substantive law was the Byzantine law ordered by Pandecticism. The invasion of German troops in the Balkan campaign in 1941, however, put a quick end to its validity. After the end of the Second World War, the 1940 code of law was revised, put into effect, the revision was abandoned in 1946 and finally the 1940 version of the Astikos Kodikas was declared valid.

In terms of constitutional history, a modified version of the 1911 constitution was in effect from 1952. A coup in 1967 was followed by the Greek military dictatorship , which ended with the return to democracy in 1974. The constitution of 1975 remains the current constitution of Greece to this day.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Athanassios N. Yiannopoulos: Historical Development . In: Konstantinos D Kerameus and Phaedon J. Kozyris (eds.): Introduction to Greek Law . 3. Edition. Kluwer Law International, Alphen aan den Rijn 2008, ISBN 978-90-411-2540-8 , p. 1-12 .
  2. ↑ www.verfassungen.eu: full text with changes