The Eastern Roman Empire for a long time was the last bastion of Roman classical legislation, preserving its traditions and main provisions. Justinian's rule showed the weakness and some moral obsolescence of the canonical legal norms used in those days. Therefore, codifications (amendments) were developed that returned the basic postulates of Roman law to the legal and actual position.
At the same time, Justinian developed a set of laws that remove the differences between classical law (jus vetus) of the times of the Great Roman Empire and modern law (jus novus), developed on the constitutions and decrees of emperors. The result of this work was the codification of Emperor Justinian.
Objectives and content
The main purpose of the creation was to develop a single collection of law, a set of norms and legal concepts, which would combine both ancient law, jus vetus, and modern imperial legislation. Such a set of laws was supposed to be a weighty argument in making legal decisions and in the administration of justice. Moreover, if the matter concerned the recent laws and orders of the emperor, it was much easier to work - all recent constitutions were regularly published. But the various legal norms indicated in them were often either repealed or indicated as outdated. Therefore, the prerequisites for the codification of Justinian were evident, and the revision of existing legal collections became extremely necessary. Moreover, it was necessary to do this in such a way that all subsequent changes were adopted in all corners of the empire, which means that only the best legal minds of that time should be engaged in legislative interpretation.
It was much more difficult to use the primary sources of classical Roman law, many of which already at that time were hopelessly lost, so addressing them was a hopeless task. On the other hand, even those essays on which the administration of justice was built were replete with contradictions and logical errors. Therefore, the opinions of various lawyers in each controversial case were very different from each other. The general decision was determined only by the total number of votes adhering to one or another verdict. In short, Justinian's empire was not fully equipped with clear and precise legal rules, and there was an urgent need to deal with this cemetery of obsolete and modern decrees, legal norms and laws, and bring the legal system in strict accordance with the spirit of Roman law.
Chronology
February 528 found Justinian to develop new provisions, including the foundations of ancient Roman jurisprudence. Justinian's codification was compiled by a commission of ten people, in which Tribonian himself participated. In April of that year, the Justinian Codex was issued , which included all the decrees and constitutions of previous emperors published at that time. The complete collection of decrees and constitutions of the previous rulers of the Eastern Roman Empire, numbering more than three thousand, was completely revised and standardized. At the end of 530, another commission of leading lawyers, led by Tribonian, worked. This time, it included the professors of the Academy of Kronstantinopol Teofil Kratin, Dorofei and Agatoliy Beritsky and several other leading lawyers. The commission's task was to develop a set of legal norms that became the main modern legal science.
Parts of the codification of Justinian
Codifications are divided into several main parts, each of which illuminates a separate vector of legal proposals and issues. At the end of 530, the so-called digests were published - collections of brief extracts from the works of classical Roman jurists. Simultaneously with digests, textbooks on the study of jurisprudence for young lawyers - institutions were developed. After that, the code of imperial constitutions was created and edited. The emperor was directly involved in the preparation of these documents and made his proposals and amendments, later combined under the name "Codification of Justinian."
A table of codification parts is presented below.
First and second revisions of codifications
The first edition of the code of laws was already known as the "codification of Justinian." Briefly, its contents came down to three parts: digests, institutions, and the code. Unfortunately, this document has not been preserved in the initial edition. The descendants were presented with a more extensive list of codifications - the so-called second edition. This set of laws was compiled after the death of Justinian, on the basis of the work of his commission and subject to amendments. The second edition became known as the "Codex repetitae praelactionis". Along with the classical three parts, it included the so-called short stories, which were a collection of imperial constitutions, published after the publication of the first collection, "The Codification of Justinian." Briefly, the significance of this work can be explained by the influence of this work on the subsequent development of European legal thought. Many legal norms formed the basis of medieval civil law. Therefore, it will be useful to consider the components of this document in more detail.
Imperial constitutions
First of all, Justinian I paid attention to various collections of imperial constitutions. His primary task was to put in order all the existing legal norms that had accumulated over the centuries after the publication of the well-known legal rarity. The Commission of Jurists met for about a year, the result of their work was Summa reipublicae, which annulled the actions of all previous acts and constitutions and reported new rules for the adoption of judicial decisions and legal disagreements. This was the first attempt to understand the legal heritage of the past, and it brought quite satisfactory results. The emperor was pleased with the work, and a decree on the adoption of new legal norms was issued on April 7, 529.
Digests
Emperor Justinian was able to collect and systematize all the current legal norms applicable at that time - leges. Now it was necessary to do the same with respect to the classical norms of Roman law - the so-called jus vetus. The new task was larger than the previous one, and working with them was incomparably more difficult. But the professional work with the already issued Code and the active work of the assistants strengthened Justinian's decision to continue the work begun. On December 15, 630, a decree of Deo auctore was published, in which the Tribonian was destined to fulfill this difficult task, choosing his assistants. The triboniate invited to participate in the commission of all the most prominent jurists of the time, among whom were four professors of the Academy of Constantinople and eleven lawyers. What constituted the codification of Justinian can be judged by the tasks assigned to the commission:
- To collect and review the works of all the leading lawyers available at that time.
- All of these essays had to be reviewed and extracted from them.
- Remove obsolete or currently inactive rules and regulations.
- Eliminate disagreements and logical contradictions.
- To systematize the dry residue and state it in a clear and concise form.
The meaning of this part of the codification of Justinian was to create a systematic whole from a huge number of submitted documents. And this colossal work was done in just three years. Already in 533, Justinian's board issued a decree approving the new Code of Laws, which was called Digesta, and on December 30 it already began to operate throughout the Eastern Roman Empire.
Digest internal content
Digests were intended for practicing lawyers and were collections of current norms and principles of jurisprudence. Their other name is pandects. The term comes from the Greek word pandektes, which meant a comprehensive, universal - so the universal principle of applying this code of laws was emphasized. In Justinian's codification, digests were considered both collections of existing law and textbooks on applied jurisprudence. In total, 39 prominent lawyers of that time were cited in digests, and, according to the emperor himself, more than two thousand essays were studied. Pandects were the sum of all classical legal literature and were the central part of the entire set of Laws, which was approved by Justinian I. All citations are divided according to their semantic content into fifty books, forty-seven of which are equipped with their own titles with titles that reveal one or another side of the legal problem. Only three books lack titles. In the modern classification, they stand at 30, 31, 32 place. All of them are united by a common problem, and all of them are devoted to testamentary denials.
Within each title, a list of citations is devoted to one or another side of the legal issue. These quotes also have their own structure. In most cases, quotes from legal provisions commenting on civil law are the first, then extracts from essays ad edictum on the ethical side of the problem, and in conclusion are extracts from essays that reveal examples of the application of legal norms in legal practice. At the head of the extracts of the third group were responsa Papiniani, so these sections are called the "mass of Papillan." Sometimes a title is completed by additional statements - they are also called Appendix.
Any of the extracts and quotes cited contains precise indications of the cited author and his writings. In the editions of modern jurisprudence, all quotations are numbered, the longest of them are divided into small parts - paragraphs. Therefore, when referring to the pandects, one should not indicate the book from which the phrase was taken, but the title, number of the quote and its paragraph.
Interpolation
Creating the central part of the codifications, legal scholars had to not only collect the statements of ancient lawyers, but also to present them in an understandable manner. Moreover, in the writings of the ancients there were many places that, by the time of Justinian, were hopelessly outdated. But this should not have been reflected in the quality and clarity of the texts. To correct the flaws, compilers often resorted to small changes in the quoted extracts. Such changes were later called interpolations. No external signs of interpolation were noted; they all come as normal references from Roman sources. But a comprehensive study of digests using linguistic methods allows us to detect interpolations in large quantities. Compilers skillfully walked all over the legal heritage and brought it into a form that was easy to understand. Sometimes such discrepancies are easily found when comparing quotes taken from the same work of a Roman lawyer, but according to the meaning of which are placed in various books of Predictions. There are also known cases of comparing quotes from codifications of Justinian with surviving primary sources. But in the vast majority of cases, the processing and distortion of compilers can only be detected through complex historical and linguistic investigations.
Institutions
Simultaneously with the titanic work on writing digest, work was underway to create a short manual for beginner lawyers. Professors Theophilus and Dorotheus took a direct part in the drafting of the new manual. The manual was compiled in the form of a civil law course. For its designation, the name was taken quite natural for those times. In November 533, Emperor Justinian issued a decree cupidae legum Juventati, intended for schoolchildren and students. It officially sanctioned the legal norms set forth in the institutions, and the manual itself was aligned with other codifications of Justinian.
Institutional structure
The most ancient institutions were manuals written by the Roman lawyer Guy, who conducted his legal activities in the 2nd century AD. e. This guide was intended for novice lawyers and was used as a textbook on elementary jurisprudence. Justinian institutions took the principle of structuring from this manual. Just like Guy, the entire textbook is divided into four large parts. Many chapters were directly rewritten from Guy’s manual, even the principle of paragraph division was taken from this ancient lawyer. Each of the four books has its own title, each of the titles is divided into paragraphs. After the title and before the first paragraph, there is always a short article called principium. Perhaps members of the Justinian commission did not want to reinvent the wheel and settled on the option that was most convenient for study.
Need for change
While there was hard work on the preparation of new legal norms and concepts, the legislation of Byzantium issued a lot of new rules and interpretations, which also needed to be revised. Some of these contraverses were signed directly by Justinian and announced in the form of decrees - the number of controversial decrees reached fifty. Many of the decisions put forward required a new assessment and revision, therefore, after the final issue of Digest and the Institutions, some of the norms set forth in them already required revision. The code, published in 529, contained illegal or outdated provisions, and therefore did not meet the requirements put forward. The commission was forced to consider the disputed provisions, rework them and reconcile them with the already issued standards and regulations. This work was completed, and in 534 the second edition of the Codex was released, which became known as the Codex repetitae praelectionis.
Short stories
On this, the Code of Laws of the Eastern Roman Empire was completed. Subsequent decrees that correct the existing norms, which were issued later, dealt with the particularities of applying this or that decree in practice. In the existing legal tradition, they are united under the common name Novellae leges short stories. Some of the short stories have not only recommendations for the application of existing law, but also very broad interpretations of some areas of jurisprudence. Emperor Justinian intended to compile short stories and publish them as an addition to existing codifications. But, unfortunately, he could not do this. So far, several private collections have reached. Moreover, each of these short stories should be interpreted as an addition to one or another part of the codifications.
The structure and purpose of short stories
All short stories included constitutions published by Justinian during his reign. They contained rules repealing the early decisions of the emperor. In most cases, they are written in Greek, except for those provinces in which Latin was used as the state language. There are short stories published in both languages at the same time.
Each of the short stories consists of three parts, which list the reasons leading to the publication of a new constitution, the content of the amendments and the procedure for their entry into force. In Justinian novels, the first part is called Proaemium, and the subsequent ones are divided into chapters. The final part is called Epilogus. The list of issues raised in the short stories is very diverse: questions of the application of civil law alternate with administrative, church or judicial. Particularly interesting for the study of novels 127 and 118, which relate to the right of inheritance in the absence of a will. By the way, they formed the basis of the legislation of the German kingdoms. Of interest are also short stories on family and public law, and on the features of the application of certain legal norms.
Justinian Novels Nowadays
Justinian’s short stories reached modern scholars in collections of their private collections of second-hand book dealers. One of these collections was published in 556 and contains 124 short stories arranged in chronological order. The oldest novel dates back to 535, and the latest of the entire collection dates back to 555. This collection is called Juliani epitome Novellarum. Another collection containing 134 short stories was previously known, but at present it is not available for wide study. Emperor Tiberius11, who succeeded Justinian, published a complete collection of short stories compiled from 578 to 582. It contains 168 short stories, including both the well-known short stories of Justinian, and new ones. This collection has reached modern scholars in a Venetian manuscript dating from the late 12th century. Part of it is repeated in the manuscript of the Florentine chronicler, who rewrote short stories two centuries later. In addition, a number of Justinian short stories from private collections on church law are known.
Corpus Rights
All parts of the new Code, according to Justinian, should have been a single whole, although a common name was not invented for them. , . , . Corpus Juris Civilis. .