Code of Justinian: The Basis of Western Civil Law

The Code of Justinian (in Latin, Codex Justinianus) is a substantial collection of laws compiled under the sponsorship of Justinian I, a ruler of the Byzantine Empire.

Emperor Justinian ruled from 527 to 565, and his legal code, one of his greatest achievements, was aimed at the administrative reorganization of the imperial government. It was the basis of Byzantine Law.

The Codex was a compilation of existing laws and historic opinions of great legal experts of the Byzantine Empire. Included are an outline of law in general and the laws passed during Justinian’s reign.

As soon as he took the throne, Justinian began working on the Code. He completed most of it in the mid-530s, and, as the Code included new laws, parts of it were regularly revised. It was completed at the end of his reign in 565. The Code of Justinian was comprised of four books: Codex Constitutionum, Digest, Institutes, and Novels.

The Four Books

Codex Constitutionum

Codex Constitutionum was the first book to be compiled by a commission of ten jurists appointed by Justinian in the first months of his reign. The jurists reviewed all laws and rulings of previous emperors. They reconciled contradictions, discarded obsolete laws, and adapted archaic laws to their contemporary conditions.

The results of their efforts were published in ten volumes in the year 529 and sent throughout the Empire. All imperial laws not contained in the Codex Constitutionum were repealed.

In 534, a revised codex was issued that incorporated the legislation Justinian had passed in the first seven years of his reign. This Codex Repetitae Praelectionis was comprised of twelve volumes.

Digest

Digest (also known as the Pandects) was begun in 530 under the direction of Tribonian, an esteemed jurist appointed by the Emperor. Tribonian created a commission of sixteen attorneys who combed through the writings of every recognized legal expert in imperial history.

They selected writings of legal value and chose one or two extracts on each legal point. They then combined them into an immense collection of fifty volumes, subdivided into segments according to subject. The resulting work was published in 533. Any juridical statement that wasn’t included in the Digest would no longer be a valid basis for legal citation.

Institutes

When Tribonian and his commission had finished the Digest, he turned his attention to the Institutes. The Institutes was a basic legal textbook for beginning law students. It was based on earlier texts, including some by the great Roman jurist Gaius, and provided a general outline of legal institutions.

Novels, also known as the Novellae Constitutiones Post Codicem

After the revised Codex was published in 534, the last publication, the Novels was issued. This publication was a collection of the new laws the Emperor had issued himself. It was reissued regularly until Justinian’s death.

With the exception of the Novels, which were almost all written in Greek, the Code of Justinian was published in Latin. The Novels also had Latin translations for the western provinces of the Empire.

Justinian’s Corpus Juris Civilis

Justinian’s great accomplishment was the codification of Roman law that provided the centralized state with a single legal basis. With unsurpassed purity and clarity, Roman law, as codified by Byzantine jurists, regulated the whole of public and private life, as well as the life of the state, citizens, and families. The relations of citizens among themselves as well as financial transactions and property relations were also governed.

However, the Corpus Juris Civilis was not just a mechanical and completely faithful imitation of ancient Roman law. The jurists of Justinian not only developed but also in some places modified classical Roman law. The codified law could be adapted to the requirements of the modern social order and harmonized with the commands of Christian ethics and customary law of the Hellenized East.

In many cases, particularly in family law, Christian influence led to more humanistic legal concepts. On the other hand, the doctrinal exclusivity of the Christian religion had the consequence of depriving the heterodox of any legal protection. The principles of liberty and equality of men, proclaimed by the legislative work of Justinian, were not applied in practice with absolute consistency.

Of course, the improvement of the position of slaves in Justinian law is due to these high principles as well as to Christian ideals, which facilitate and even recommend their emancipation.

Even more important is that in the sixth-century economy in general and especially in the agricultural realm, slaves played a secondary role. In this sector, the main agents of production were the serfs. For their position, Justinian law did not foresee any improvement. On the contrary, it strengthened forced attachment to the land and thus provided for stronger legal protection to the subjugation of the great majority of the peasant population.

Influenced by his wife Theodora, some of the laws were specifically for the protection of women. They were included to protect prostitutes from exploitation and women from being forced into prostitution. Rapists were treated severely. Furthermore, according to the policies, women charged with major criminal activity were to be guarded by other women so as to prevent sexual abuse. If a woman was widowed, her dowry had to be returned, and a husband could not take on any major debt without his wife consenting twice.

The main feature of Justinian’s legislation is the emphasis on the absolutism of the emperor. By legally consolidating monarchical power, the Corpus Juris Civilis decisively influenced the formation of political theory not only in the Byzantine Empire but also in the West. In all periods of Byzantine history, the foundation of legal life was Roman law. The entirety of the later development of Byzantine law was based on Justinian’s legislative work, while the West returned to Roman law only in the twelfth century.

The implementation of Roman law, accomplished through the study of the Corpus Juris Civilis, exerted an incalculable influence on the formation of the legal and political conceptions of the West. Since that time, Roman law, formed by Justinian’s jurists, has been the most critical element in the development of law in every European country.