Legal Code

Roman Law: First Legal Code

Introduction to Legal Code

In the 3rd century ad the decrees or laws issued by the emperors gained increasing importance in the Roman legal system. The first codification of this imperial legislation, the Codex Theodosianus, was published by Theodosius II, ruler of the Byzantine Empire, in ad438. Theodosius entertained, but did not carry out, a broader plan, involving an official digest of the older law, as set forth in the juristic literature. Subsequently Justinian I appointed a committee of ten jurists, the most famous of whom was his chief legal minister, Tribonian, to make such a digest. The law books published by Justinian, the Institutiones (533), the Digesta or Pandecta (533), and the Codex Constitutionum (528-29; revised 534), together with the Novellae (534-65), are collectively known as the Corpus Juris Civilis.

The Institutiones of Justinian set forth the elements of Roman law and was based on the Institutiones of Gaius. It was intended primarily for law students, but was published with statutory force. The Digesta or Pandecta, composed of excerpts from the juristic literature of four centuries (from about 30 bc to ad 300), was a collection of decisions of the courts, with commentaries on various laws. The Novellae was a collection of the laws issued by Justinian and his successors. The revised Codex Constitutionum was a compilation of all imperial legislation up to ad534.

The law books of Justinian retained the force of law in the Byzantine Empire until the end of the 9th century, when they were condensed into a single code, written in Greek and known as the Basilica. This code, in turn, remained nominally in force until the capture of Constantinople (present-day _stanbul) by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. In western Europe between the 6th and the 11th centuries the principal source of Roman law was the Breviary of Alaric, compiled by Alaric II, king of the Visigoths, in 506 ad. In the 11th century, however, the law books of Justinian were studied and used in Lombardy (Lombardia), in southern France, and in Barcelona, Spain. In Italy, the laws of Justinian were taught in a regular law school at Pavia. Early in the 12th century a more thorough study of these texts was inaugurated at Bologna. The systematic study of Roman law spread from Italy throughout Europe from the 12th century onward. With the revival of European commerce and the inadequacy of medieval law to meet the requirements of the changing economic and social conditions, Roman law became incorporated in the legal systems of the many continental European countries.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Legal Code in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Legal Code

Hierarchical Display of Legal code

Law > Sources and branches of the law > Source of law

Legal code

Concept of Legal code

See the dictionary definition of Legal code.

Characteristics of Legal code

[rtbs name=”xxx-xxx”]

Resources

Translation of Legal code

• Spanish: Código jurídico
• French: Code juridique
• German: Gesetzbuch
• Italian: Codice giuridico
• Portuguese: Código jurídico
• Polish: Kodeks prawa

Thesaurus of Legal code

Law > Sources and branches of the law > Source of law > Legal code

See also

• European company

• Commercial code
• Commercial law
• Civil code
• Civil law
• Penal code
• Criminal law
• Administrative code
• Administrative law

• Legal codification
• Codification of laws