Justinian and the Corpus Iuris Civilis

Justinian and the Corpus Iuris Civilis

The emperor Justinian I (482-565 ) was one of the most well-known of the East Roman or Byzantine emperors . As the nephew of Justin I , he inherited the throne in 527 and reigned until his death , circa 565 AD One of the most remarkable achievements of his reign was the publication of the Corpus Iuris Civilis , or the Body of Civil Law . Publication began in 529 with the Codex further portions of the Corpus followed with the Digesta and the Institutiones in 533 , and the Novellae , which were

br additions and expansions published throughout Justinian 's reign . Both the content and the organization of the Corpus Iuris Civilis have left a lasting impression on European law and other legal systems descended from it

Justinian began his life as the son of a peasant and an emperor 's sister , in a village named Tauresium in Illyria . Justinian was adopted and educated by his uncle , Emperor Justin , in Constantinople . He was appointed consul in 521 , and on his uncle 's death in 526 became Emperor himself . He married Theodora , a woman of lower class standing , on his uncle 's passage of a law which allowed for inter-class marriage in 525 It took only three years after his appointment as Emperor for the Corpus Iuris Civilis to appear

The Corpus Iuris Civilis was a new concept in Roman law . Before this as Gibbon states , During four centuries , from Hadrian to Justinian the public and private jurisprudence was moulded by the will of the sovereign and few institutions , either the human or divine , were permitted to stand on their former basis ' Edicts were passed , then overturned , at the whim of the Emperor or his predecessor , and there was no definitive body of Roman law . This was further confused by the passage of laws by the Senate and the existence of natural ' law , or the law of the people . The Codex Theodosianus , or Theodosian Code , was a collection of imperial edicts from the reign of Constantine I , in the mid-400s . The purpose of the Codex Theodosianus was to clarify what the law was , ensuring that everyone would be able to follow it . However the Theodosian Code was not kept up to date . By the time Justinian began to rule Byzantium , the body of Roman law was huge and unorganized the laws , written in a myriad of languages and not collected in any fashion were often ignored because they couldn 't be determined . There were two private collections of laws , the Codex Gregorianus and Hermogenianus which provided some of the structure and organization of the Corpus Iuris Civilis . These codes were divided into books and titles , as was the Corpus Iuris Civilis

The publication of the Corpus Iuris Civilis began with the Codex Justiciani , in 529 , and continued over a period of several years , with updates regularly distributed for decades . The Codex Justiciani contained all the existing imperial edicts , or constitutiones , from the time of Hadrian forward . Publication continued with the Pandectes...