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| Body of Civil Law Corpus Juris Civilis | |
|---|---|
 Corpus Iuris Civilis, 1583 | |
| Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus Augustus,Roman emperor | |
| Territorial extent | Eastern Roman Empire |
| Enacted by | Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus Augustus,Roman emperor |
| Effective | 534 (534) |
| Introduced by | John the Cappadocian,Tribonian |
TheCorpus Juris (orIuris)Civilis ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name[1] for a collection of fundamental works injurisprudence, enacted from 529 to 534 by order ofByzantine EmperorJustinian I. It is also sometimes referred tometonymically after one of its parts, theCode of Justinian.
The work as planned had three parts: theCode (Codex) is a compilation, by selection and extraction, of imperial enactments to date; theDigest orPandects (the Latin title contains bothDigesta andPandectae) is an encyclopedia composed of mostly brief extracts from the writings of Roman jurists; and theInstitutes (Institutiones) is a student textbook, mainly introducing theCode, although it has important conceptual elements that are less developed in theCode or theDigest.[2] All three parts, even the textbook, were given force of law. They were intended to be, together, the sole source of law; reference to any other source, including the original texts from which theCode and theDigest had been taken, was forbidden. Nonetheless, Justinian found himself having to enact further laws; today these are counted as a fourth part of the Corpus, theNovellae Constitutiones (Novels, literallyNew Laws).
The work was directed byTribonian, an official in Justinian's court inConstantinople. His team was authorized to edit what they included. How far they made amendments is not recorded and, in the main, cannot be known because most of the originals have not survived. The text was composed and distributed almost entirely inLatin, which was still the official language of the government of theEastern Roman Empire in 529–534, whereas the prevalent language of merchants, farmers, seamen, and other citizens wasGreek. By the early 7th century, Greek had largely replaced Latin as the dominant language of the empire.
TheCorpus Juris Civilis was revised into Greek, when that became the predominant language of the Eastern Roman Empire, and continued to form the basis of the empire's laws, theBasilika (Greek: τὰ βασιλικά, 'imperial laws'), through the 15th century. TheBasilika in turn served as the basis for local legal codes in the Balkans during the followingOttoman period and later formed the basis of the legal code of Modern Greece. In Western Europe, theCorpus Juris Civilis, or its successor texts like theBasilika, did not get well established originally and was only recovered in the Middle Ages, being "received" or imitated asprivate law. Itspublic law content was quarried for arguments by both secular and ecclesiastical authorities. This recovered Roman law, in turn, became the foundation of law in allcivil law jurisdictions. The provisions of theCorpus Juris Civilis also influenced thecanon law of theCatholic Church: it was said thatecclesia vivit lege romana – the church lives by Roman law.[3] Its influence oncommon law legal systems has been much smaller, although some basic concepts from the Corpus have survived throughNorman law – such as the contrast, especially in theInstitutes, between "law" (statute) and custom. The Corpus continues to have a major influence onpublic international law. Its four parts thus constitute the foundation documents of theWestern legal tradition.
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Justinian acceded to the imperial throne inConstantinople in 527.[4] Six months after his accession, in order to reduce the great number of imperial constitutions and thus also the number of court proceedings, Justinian arranged for the creation of a new collection of imperial constitutions (Codex Iustinianus).[4] The commission in charge of the compilation process was explicitly authorized to leave out or change text and to delete what was obsolete or contradictory.[4] Soon, in 529, the Codex was completed and was conferred the force of law in the whole empire, replacing all earlier constitutions and theCodex Theodosianus.[4]
A little more than a year after the enactment of the first edition of the Code, Justinian appointed a commission headed byTribonian to compile the traditional jurists' law in a new, shortened and contemporary codification: the 'Digest or Pandects'.[4] The traditional collection of jurists' law, Justinian believed, was so extensive that it had become unmanageable, necessitating a new compilation. The commission completed its work within three years, in 533.[4]
Tribonian's commission surveyed the works of classical jurists who were assumed in Justinian's time to have the authority to clarify law (ius respondendi) and whose works were still available.[4] In total, there are excerpts from 38 jurists in the Digest.[4]
The "Codex Justinianus", "Codex Justinianeus" or "Codex Justiniani" (Latin for "Justinian's Code") was the first part to be finished, on 7 April 529. It contained inLatin most of the existing imperialconstitutiones (imperial pronouncements having force of law), back to the time ofHadrian. It used both theCodex Theodosianus and the fourth-century collections embodied in theCodex Gregorianus andCodex Hermogenianus, which provided the model for division into books that were themselves divided into titles. These works had developed authoritative standing.[5] This first edition is now lost; a second edition was issued in 534 and is the text that has survived. At least the second edition contained some of Justinian's own legislation, including some legislation in Greek. It is not known whether he intended there to be further editions, although he did envisage translation of Latin enactments into Greek.
Numerous provisions served to secure the status of Christianity as thestate religion of the empire, uniting Church and state, and making anyone who was not connected to the Christian church a non-citizen. The Christianity referred to isChalcedonian Christianity as defined by the state church, which excluded a variety of other major Christian sects in existence at the time such as theChurch of the East andOriental Orthodoxy.
The very first law in the Codex requires all persons under the jurisdiction of the Empire to hold the Christian faith. This was primarily aimed at heresies such asNestorianism. This text later became the springboard for discussions of international law, especially the question of just what persons are under the jurisdiction of a given state or legal system.
Other laws, while not aimed at pagan belief as such, forbid particular pagan practices. For example, it is provided that all persons present at a pagan sacrifice may be indicted as if for murder.
TheDigesta orPandectae, completed in 533, is a collection of juristic writings, mostly dating back to the second and third centuries. Fragments were taken out of various legal treatises and opinions and inserted in the Digest. In their original context, the statements of the law contained in these fragments were just private opinions of legal scholars – although some juristic writings had been privileged by Theodosius II'sLaw of Citations in 426. The Digest, however, was given full force of law.
As theDigest neared completion,Tribonian and two professors, Theophilus andDorotheus, made a student textbook, called theInstitutions orElements. As there were four elements, the manual consists of four books. TheInstitutiones are largely based on theInstitutiones ofGaius. Two-thirds of theInstitutiones of Justinian consists of literal quotes from Gaius. The newInstitutiones were used as a manual for jurists in training from 21 November 533 and were given the authority of law on 30 December 533 along with theDigest.
The Novellae consisted of new laws that were passed after 534. They were later re-worked into theSyntagma, a practical lawyer's edition, byAthanasios of Emesa during the years 572–577.
As the administrative language of the Eastern Roman Empire shifted away from Latin,legal codes based on theCorpus Juris Civilis were enacted in Greek. The most well known are:
TheBasilika was a complete adaptation of Justinian's codification. At 60 volumes it proved to be difficult for judges and lawyers to use. There was need for a short and handy version. This was finally made byConstantine Harmenopoulos, a Byzantine judge fromThessaloniki, in 1345. He made a short version ofBasilika in six books, calledHexabiblos. This was widely used throughout the Balkans during the following Ottoman period, and along with theBasilika was used as the first legal code for the newlyindependent Greek state in the 1820s.Serbian state, law and culture was built on the foundations of Rome and Byzantium. Therefore, the most important Serbian legal codes:Zakonopravilo (1219) andDušan's Code (1349 and 1354),transplanted Romano-Byzantine Law included inCorpus Juris Civilis,Prohiron andBasilika. These Serbian codes were practised until theSerbian Despotate fell to the TurkishOttoman Empire in 1459. After the liberation from the Turks in theSerbian Revolution,Serbs continued to practise Roman Law by enacting Serbian civil code in 1844. It was a short version ofAustrian civil code (calledAllgemeines bürgerliches Gesetzbuch), which was made on the basis ofCorpus Juris Civilis.
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Justinian'sCorpus Juris Civilis was distributed in the West[8] and went into effect in those areas regained under Justinian's wars of reconquest (Pragmatic Sanction of 554), including theExarchate of Ravenna. Accordingly, theInstitutes were made the textbook at the law school in Rome, and later in Ravenna when the school relocated there. However, after the loss of most of these areas, only theCatepanate (southern Italy) maintained a Byzantine legal tradition, but there theCorpus was superseded by theEcloga andBasilika. Only theCorpus's provisions regulating the church still had any effect, but the Catholic church'sde facto autonomy and theGreat Schism made even that irrelevant. In Western Europe, theCorpus may have spurred a slew of Romano-Germanic law codes in the successor Germanic kingdoms, but these were heavily based on the olderTheodosian Code, not theCorpus.
Historians disagree on the precise way theCorpus was recovered in Northern Italy about 1070: legal studies were undertaken on behalf of papal authority central to theGregorian Reform ofPope Gregory VII, which may have led to its accidental rediscovery.[citation needed] Aside from theLittera Florentina (a complete 6th-century copy of theDigest preserved inAmalfi and later moved toPisa) and theEpitome Codicis (c. 1050; incomplete manuscript preserving most of theCodex), there may have been other manuscript sources for the text that began to be taught at Bologna, byPepo and then byIrnerius.[9] Irnerius' technique was to read a passage aloud, which permitted his students to copy it, then to deliver an excursus explaining and illuminating Justinian's text, in the form ofglosses.[citation needed] Irnerius' pupils, the so-calledFour Doctors of Bologna, were among the first of the "glossators" who established the curriculum ofmedieval Roman law. The tradition was carried on by French lawyers, known as theUltramontani, in the 13th century.[citation needed]
The merchant classes ofItalian communes required law with a concept ofequity, and law that covered situations inherent in urban life better than the primitive Germanic oral traditions. The provenance of the Code appealed to scholars who saw in theHoly Roman Empire a revival of venerable precedents from the classical heritage. The new class of lawyers staffed the bureaucracies that were beginning to be required by the princes of Europe. TheUniversity of Bologna, where Justinian's Code was first taught, remained the dominant centre for the study of law through theHigh Middle Ages.[10]
A two-volume edition of the Digest was published in Paris in 1549 and 1550, translated by Antonio Agustín, Bishop of Tarragona, who was well known for other legal works. The full title of the Digest wasDigestorum seu Pandectarum tomus alter, and it was published by Carolus Guillardus. Vol. 1 of the Digest has 2934 pages, while vol. 2 has 2754 pages. Referring to Justinian's Code asCorpus Juris Civilis was only adopted in the 16th century, when it was printed in 1583 byDionysius Gothofredus under this title. The legal thinking behind theCorpus Juris Civilis served as the backbone of the single largest legal reform of the modern age, theNapoleonic Code, which marked the abolition offeudalism, but reinstatedslavery in the French Caribbean. Napoleon, as he waged total war on Europe, wanted to see these principles introduced to the whole of Europe because he saw them as an effective form of rule that created a more equal society and thus creating a more friendly relationship between the ruling class and the rest of the peoples of Europe.[11]
TheCorpus Juris Civilis was translated into French, German, Italian, and Spanish in the 19th century.[12] However, no English translation of the entireCorpus Juris Civilisexisted until 1932 whenSamuel Parsons Scott published his versionThe Civil Law. Scott did not base his translation on the best available Latin versions, and his work was severely criticized.[13]Fred. H. Blume used the best-regarded Latin editions for his translations of the Code and of the Novels.[14] A new English translation of the Code, based on Blume's, was published in October 2016.[15] In 2018, the Cambridge University Press also published a new English translation of the Novels, based primarily on the Greek text.[16]
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