International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Flora Karagianni
European Centre for Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Monuments, Thessaloniki, Greece; 
[e-mail]
Latin Interventions in the Byzantine Architecture of Cyprus (1191-1570)
(No text)
Nikitas Hatzimihail
University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus; 
[e-mail]
Law in Latin Cyprus: The Assizes at the Crossroads
Sources of law constitute a vital aspect of the study of Latin Cyprus: they allow us to recreate 
the institutions and instruments of Lusignan rule and to evaluate – official and informal – attitudes 
of ruling classes and native population alike. Moreover, from the point of view of legal history, Latin 
Cyprus allows us to examine several themes concerning a defining period in the history of the 
Western legal tradition, i.e. the High Middle Ages. Notably, the interaction between Eastern Roman 

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(Byzantine) and Western European law; the degree of influence that the emerging learned law of 
Western European universitities may have had on the “Latin” 
iura propria
of the crusader kingdoms 
and their successor in Cyprus; the influence of local custom on established norms and attitudes.
The principal source for such inquires concerns the
 Assizes of Jerusalem and Cyprus
, a law 
collection, often described in terms of a code, but perhaps more resembling of a legal treatise. 
Originally composed for the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1189), the Assizes were put into effect in 
Lusignan Cyprus, becoming a formal source of law by 1369. The Assizes are divided into Assizes of 
the High Court (Assises de la Haute Cour) and Assizes of the Lower – or Burghers’ – Court (Assises 
de la Basse Cour, Assises de la Cour des Bourgeois). The former address the rights and duties of 
members of the nobility, as well as between nobility and king. The latter address rights and duties 
of the burghers. Both were originally written in French, but the Assizes of the Burghers’ Court 
were eventually translated in the local Greek dialect. These latter “Greek” Assizes present particular 
interest: on the one hand, they allow us to study the interaction between Latin rulers and local 
population; on the other hand, it has been argued (e.g. Zepos) that they reflect a strong influence by 
both the formal Byzantine law and local customs surviving in the Graeco-Roman East.
My paper consists of three parts: a concise presentation of the sources available and their 
context; a critical presentation of the debates in historiography about them, and the stakes involved; 
and an examination of specific examples that may confirm these supposed connections with West 
and Byzantine East.