Il dialogo tra Oriente e Occidente. Il caso della legislazione sul ripudio

The legislation that has come down to us attests to a different repudium regime between East and West in the 5th century. However, the state and the nature of the sources makes the picture very complex. In addition to the difference in the regime (minimized or denied by some scholars), we will consider the circulation of norms in this sector of the legal system, the reception of some of them and the rejection of others, and the different normative production that suggests a long-distance dialogue between divergent conceptions of marriage and its unilateral dissolution. Those differences mirror different attitudes of the Eastern and Western Churches, as known from the conciliar canons and the Greek and Latin patristic texts. By means of an in-depth study of the institution of repudiation (in particular, Nov. Th. 2 and 12, C. 5.17.8, Nov. Val. 26 and 35.11) the paper aims to shed some light on the dialogue and contrasts between emperors and chancelleries of East and West.