The term "Justinian Digests" is understood to mean a collection of legal standards, which is a compilation of the works of Roman jurists. This document, created in 530-533, by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (a photo of a mosaic with his portrait opens the article) was included in the code of laws, then united under the general name “Roman civil law” and subsequently greatly influenced the formation of world jurisprudence.
Laws Consecrated by the Names of Emperors
The peculiarity of ancient Roman jurisprudence consisted in the fact that it provided for the execution of all procedural acts exclusively by professional lawyers, whose scope of activity included: drawing up claims and formalizing transactions, speaking in court on behalf of the defendants, as well as conducting civil and criminal cases.
The authority of the most prominent lawyers was unusually high, and their opinion sometimes had more weight than the law, which covered the issue before the court. This state of things was largely promoted by the supreme rulers. For example, the edict published by Octavian Augustus (63 BC - 14) is known, in which he prescribed the opinion expressed by the most prominent jurists to equate to expressing the imperial will. A photo of his sculpture is given below.
Moreover, he established the so-called right of answers, which gave lawyers the authority to dictate their decision to high-ranking officials. A similar position was subsequently taken by his successor Tiberius, who ruled from 14 to 37 years. Thus, Digesta is a code of laws, consecrated by the names of the Roman crown princes.
Empire in crisis
The prerequisite for the creation of Digest laws was the situation that had developed in the Roman Empire by the middle of the 3rd century and was marked by a crisis in all areas of life caused by the immensely overgrown imperial power. A characteristic feature of this period was the decline of jurisprudence.
The rulers who headed two centuries after Octavian Augustus and Tiberius, the greatest empire, at that time, in many respects limited the powers of lawyers, abolishing the institution of the “right of answers” and entrusting itself with the role of supreme arbiter on all contentious issues. This state of affairs contributed to the adoption of biased decisions, often dictated not by the essence of the case being examined, but only by the mood in which the crown bearer was at that time. It is believed that this was one of the reasons for the ensuing collapse of the Roman Empire.
The heirs of Roman law
Digests are a set of laws, although drawn from Roman jurisprudence, but compiled and saw the light already in Byzantium, the eastern part of the great empire that had collapsed by then. In 527, the extremely ambitious emperor Justinian I ascended her throne, dreaming not only to go down in history thanks to military victories, but also to gain the laurels of the legislator. Byzantine law at that time was based on laws inherited from Rome, but in an extremely chaotic state. Many of them contradicted each other, and part of the legal literature was not available for use.
Widely known already in the period of Modern History, the book "Justinian Digests" was the result of efforts to systematize and streamline the legal framework that Byzantium inherited from Rome. It should be noted that it was not Justinian himself who worked on the now-known edition of the code of laws, although in all editions of this work his name is put on the title page. The true author of Digest is a major Byzantine dignitary of the VI century Tribonian, who was entrusted with this troublesome business. In history, it is not uncommon when laurels are given not to the performer, but to the one who gave the order.
Titanic labor
Three years after his accession to the throne, the ambitious Justinian issued a special decree, on the basis of which a commission was created, consisting of four law professors and eleven most prominent lawyers and headed by the aforementioned Tribonian. She faced a truly daunting task - to disassemble and systematize the entire legal heritage of Roman lawyers, excluding obviously obsolete normative acts from it.
To imagine the amount of work ahead, it’s enough to say that jurists had to study in detail and put in order 2 thousand (!) Books containing about 3 million lines of handwritten text. By modern standards, this corresponds to 3 thousand printed sheets or 100 full-volume volumes.
Organization of work on the code of laws
In Byzantium, the author Digest (the real author is Tribonian) did not in vain enjoy the reputation of a wise statesman who had the ability to safely get out of the most difficult situations. He did not fail his crowned boss this time either, dividing the members of the group entrusted to him into three subcommissions, each of which set a specific and clearly formulated task.
So, the members of the first group dealt exclusively with issues related to "civil," that is, state law, which was widely developed in Rome and then had no analogues in world practice. Their colleagues from the second sub-commission were instructed to study and edit, taking into account the requirements of the current moment, the works of such luminaries of Roman law as Publius Celsus, Ulpian, Gaius and Modestine. As for the members of the third group, they, dealing with civil law issues, had to delve into the works of Stcevola, Paul and Ulpian. Thus, the Digesta compiled in Byzantium and extant to our time is the result of the work of a whole team of lawyers, led by the Tribonian.
The completion of three years of work
Based on the notes left by the direct executors of this project, as well as an in-depth analysis of the texts they compiled, the researchers noted the extraordinary thoroughness with which the assigned work was done. It was established, in particular, that members of the commission used primarily original manuscripts, and only in extreme cases were they replaced by later copies. In addition, all quotes from legal treatises included in the Roman Digests and serving as the source material for the commission members were subject to rigorous verification.
Such a large-scale project was implemented within three years, and in mid-December 533 it was adopted by the emperor Justinian, who approved it as a code of laws of the Byzantine Empire and put his own name on the title page. Then the highest decree came out, according to which, under the fear of the most severe punishment, it was forbidden to give Digest comments. It was officially announced that this could distort the opinion of ancient authors, in fact, Justinian sought to alone possess the right to interpret laws.
Postulates that became the basis of Byzantine laws
Since the Byzantine Digests are a compilation of the works of Roman authors, they were based on the postulates advanced by them, many of which remain relevant to this day. So, if the rights of litigating parties are unclear, the court is obliged to give preference to the defendant rather than the plaintiff, and if no normative act is suitable for this case, then it should be guided by elementary justice. In addition, the most important provisions of Digest are the prohibitions to consider a person guilty before it was proved in court, and to punish twice for the same criminal act.
Christian principles of law
We should also note the emphasis made by the drafters of the document on the need to approach sentencing, taking into account not only the law under which the offense or civil litigation falls, but humanism and justice, which are the basis of Christian doctrine, which was the state religion of Byzantium. One of the articles of the document even indicates that natural justice should dominate the letter of the law. As you know, the legislative standards of the previously existing states of the ancient world did not know anything like this.