The Tradition of Roman Law and the Codification of Private Law in Bulgaria

The states on Balkan peninsula received Roman law through the mediation of the Byzantine Empire. The reception of the Byzantine law-books was made easier in the Balkan states by the fact that substantive law was not separated from the law of procedure. Private law was dealt with in conjunction with financial, criminal, and canon law. During the first Bulgarian Empire the principal source of knowledge of Roman law was the Responsa Nicolai I papae ad consulta Bulgarorum albeit the influence of Byzantine law still prevailed. In 1867 a code entitled Medzellé was introduced in the territory of present-day Bulgaria. Its goal was to harmonize Islamic law with European law, especially with the French Code civil. After gaining independence a code of the law of obligations was promulgated in 1892 and another one pertaining to the law of things in 1904. Their primary model was the Italian Codice civile and to a lesser degree the Spanish Código civil. The traditions of Roman law they relied on are still there in the more recent and similar codes of 1950 and 1951. The influence of the German Pandectist School can also be seen in the legal science in Bulgaria.