Corpus juris civilis

The Code of Justinien , so known under its Latin name of corpus juris civilis is the greatest compilation of ancient Roman law.

This code is resulting from the ambition of Justinien I {{er}}, emperor of the Roman Empire of the East. This one wished to have a code of right useful to its empire and faithful to the Roman tradition. Work is halfway between coding and compilation. Although they took again the traditional texts, the authors knew to adapt texts of very different times (theoretically all Roman history!), of the Law of the Twelve Tables to the imperial constitutions of the Lower Empire, to constitute a coherent unit, rather different from the traditional Roman law, because granted to the Christianity.

This legislative work takes a fundamental importance in Occident because it is in this received form of Justinien that the medieval Occident, as from the 12th century adopts the Roman law, ancestor of our right.

Justinien was so sure perenniality of the corpus that it abrogea all the former right, conferred an authority equivalent to the whole of work, and prohibits even any comment of Digeste, “clearly like water of rock”.

Towards 900, the emperor Leon Wise the ordered the translation of the Greek whole in , to make it comprehensible to the Byzantine lawyers. This Greek version was entitled Basilica .

Composition

The Code of Justinien is composed of four elements:

the Codex Iustiniani ,
the Digeste ,
the Institutes ,
the Novelles .

Digeste is still today the independent source of our knowledge of the Roman law.

Codex Iustinianus

Promulgated in 529, the code of Justinien ( codex Iustinianus or codex legum ) was written by a commission of imperial civils servant and professors of the schools of right, chaired by the lawyer Tribonien; it is about a collection of imperial Constitutions ( light ) published since Hadrian. It acts at the bottom only of one update of the Code of Théodose.

The legislative activity being remained intense during the drafting of Digeste, one second edition was promulgated in 534 under the names Codex juris civilis or Novus Iustinianius . The Code of Justinien is articulated around a coherent plan:

delivers I: right ecclesiastic;

delivers II: legal procedure;

books III to VIII: Private law;

delivers IX: criminal Law;

books X to XII: Administrative law and Revenue duty: these provisions reinforce the power of the State and its hierachic organization.

Compared to the preceding rules, the Code of Justinien is characterized by the fact that the Emperor becomes the single source of the right: the Emperor is only invested right to impose the rules of the right like injunctions or commands, this right being withdrawn to the magistrates.

Equality of the people

The principal innovation relates to the assertion of the rights whose men must profit and who constitute an embryonic form of " rights of the homme" : the Roman distinction between the civil law of the citizens and the law of nations is abolished with the profit of the law of nations , which is opposed to the natural right.

This innovation will be marked by an increased protection of the right of weak: simplification of the procedures of stamping from the slaves, who become then immediately citizens, equality between all the citizens and suppression of the distinction between the dediticii , Latin juniens and other Roman citizens.

Family right

Parental rights . Justinien makes abolish the noxae datio , making it possible to the father to deliver his child in compensation for the damages which it had made. It also removes the rule by which the father preserved the property of the goods of his children: this property is limited to simple a Usufruit. The procedures of emancipation of the children are also simplified.

Marital rights . The divorces without legitimate reason, the remarriages are sanctioned. The adultery of the woman sees her reduced sanction. The poor women who marry without dowry see recognizing a right in the succession of their husband; the women marrying with dowry preserve the property of this one.

Successional right

If acceptance and the renunciation of succession are preserved, the heirs see themselves granting the right of inventory, limiting their contribution in the passive successional to the amount of the credit ( this rule appears today still in the successional right French ).

The natural children also see themselves recognizing a death tax ( this rule will be introduced in French right only in 1972 and perfect in 2001).

Criminal law

Justinien reduces the rigor of the mutilations, thus prohibiting to make cut the two hands and the two feet to the criminals and while prohibiting the mutilation for the robbers.

Digeste

It was followed of a second collection, much more ambitious, the Digeste (Pandectes in Greek, digesta iustiniani or codex iuris in Latin), compilation of the consultations of the jurisconsults of various times (the the Jura ), Republic or Empire. The development of this collection was decided by Justinien, under the constitution Deo auctore of December 15th 530.

This anthology makes the good share with the five principal lawyers of the Loi of the quotations, mainly Ulpien and Paul. Other extracts come former lawyers, sometimes even of the end of the Roman République.

The compilers removed the divergences of opinion between jurisconsults, and took again often textually their writings, by quoting their source. The classification is established by matters. Ansi, one can for example find on a subject given, the extract of a text of Ulpien, cut in its medium by a sentence of Labéon which brings a precision on a point, and followed few sentences of Gaïus.

According to Justinien, the unit makes once and half the size of the Bible, but only one twentieth of the mass of the writings stripped by the authors.

Institutes

The Institutes , the handbook of teaching of the code, was also written by a new commission to accompany the promulgation by the code and Digeste. This handbook is inspired mainly by that of Gaïus, dating from the middle of the 2nd century, and which was very much used. It takes again the plan essentially of it, by separating the people and the goods, separation which is still that of the Civil code French and of much of contemporary legal texts.

Novelle S

A fourth part, semi-official, was added thereafter: the Novelle S ( Novellae ) at the end of the reign of Justinien (565). They are made of three successive compilations of posterior imperial constitutions to the code. They are written in Greek, the language of the Byzantine Empire, contrary to the code.

Imperfections

Justinien admits itself that its Corpus is not free from imperfections, such as for example of repetitions and omissions. Many specialists, moreover, belonged there to many inconsistencies which betraying at the same time the speed with which the code was elaborate and the lack of work unit between the various commissions. It also seems that by condensing many texts, the Members of the Commission of drafting of the Code carried out mutilations and deteriorations causing of true changes of direction.

These defects will be worsened by the prohibition, made by Justinien itself, to proceed to any comment of the Corpus : the Emperor authorizes only the literal translations, without summarized synopses nor. This prohibition was however not respected and of many explanatory comments, called Indices , appeared under the feather of the same authors of the Code.

Diffusion

Many obstacles were opposed to the diffusion Code of Justinien : most important was that it was written in Latin, whereas the language of the majority of the population of the Empire was the Greek. In addition, he was opposed violently to the local habits.

Another obstacle appeared in Occident: in spite of the Pragmatic Sanction Pro petitions of the pope Vigile, the lawyers remained faithful to the Code of Théodose. Only Institutes were introduced in Italy; in Gaulle, the Code was known through a famous summary, the Bréviaire of Alaric, which remained itself only in the form of increasingly brief summaries.

The Novelles were finally translated into Latin in Epitome Iulani , diffused as a Gaulle as of the 9th century but without exerting a great influence.

It is only at the end of the 12th century that the Codex Iustiniani was redécouvert with the Université of Bologna, in Italy. Of this redécouverte engaged the rebirth of the Roman law.

The last official French translation of the Codex was carried out under the First Empire.

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