Historia do direito

Karen Rørby Kristensen

CODIFICATION, TRADITION,
AND INNOVATION IN THE LAW CODE
OF GORTYN

Since it was unearthed some 120 years ago, immense scholarly attention has been devoted to the study of the more than 600 lines of the so-called Law Code of Gortyn, particularly in terms of epigraphic, linguistic, and legal studies. The text has also been subject to discussions of social, political and economic nature. The present inquiry, however, confines itself to providing a contribution to the ongoing debate as to the Law Code’s structure and organisation, and to the implications of the manner in which the legal provisions are organised and structured within the Code. This is encompassed by the question of codification, tradition, and innovation, which I shall deal with in two respects below. The first concerns the general layout of the text – in other words its coherence as well as the logic behind the order of the different laws. I shall argue that, although for our purpose it makes good sense to identify sections of related legislation, the order of the different laws is linked together in a natural and logic sequence, which reveals two interrelated issues: the process of organising the Code and the intended utility and applicability for its future users. The second respect in which I shall consider the question of codification, tradition, and innovation concerns the structure of the individual laws, and the extent to which these demonstrate traditional and innovative features. As will become clear, unsurprisingly the legislative efforts demonstrate many traditional features with regard to the layout. We can, however, observe innovative legal enterprises, some of which were in accordance with tra-

ditional perception and expression, whilst some directly constituted a breech in traditional norms and social custom.
Yet a few remarks on «code» and «codification» in relation to the
Gortynian material are indispensable. For decades,