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Justinian's Code Of Laws (Corpus Juris Civilis)

Terms in this set (9)

Emperor Justinian
- He was the emperor of the Byzantine empire from 527 CE to his death in 565 CE.
- He contributed to the reconquering of much that had been lost to Germanic tribes.
- He had a massive building program including the Hagia Sophia.
- He was married to Empress Theodora who was a very powerful woman in her own right.
The Code Of Law
- It begun in 528 CE.
- Justinian's Code was the basis of a style of law called civil law.
- Civil law is a system of binding, written laws that cover just about everything.
- Judges must make decisions based (almost) solely on those written laws.
- Judges dominate, while lawyers play a smaller role of merely presenting the case.
- Civil law is the system of law still present in most European countries today
Common Law
- Common law is law based on precedence, or prior court decisions.
- Lawyers argue a case.
- Judges act as arbiters, or "referees."
- Court decisions made by juries and occasionally by judges.
Justinian's Attempt to systematize Roman Laws
- The Corpus Juris Civilis was Justinian's attempt to systemize Roman law.
- In this case, "systemize" means to take over 400 years of collected laws, and reduce them to a single system of laws.
- This job was given to a man by the name of Tribonian.
- It took almost one-and-a-half years for Tribonian and 17 other men to compile these laws.
- After its initial printing it was worked on for over five years.
- New laws were added to it between 535 and 565 by Emperor Justinian
- It became the most comprehensive and thorough work on law than any previous attempt, such as Hammurabi's code, or Hebraic Law (Moses' laws).
Four parts of Justinian's Code of Laws
- The Institutes
- The Digest
- The Codex
- The Novellae
Part I: The Institutes
- An introduction to Justinian's Law.
- This was sort of a textbook devised by Tribonian and two other professors.
Part II: The Digest
- The largest section.
- Considered the most important part.
- Contained interpretations from previous trials and other legal decisions.
- It was intended for lawyers and judges so they could look stuff up.
Part III: The Codex
- This was the collection of the laws themselves.
- It contains just under 5000 laws.
Part IV: The Novellae
- This consisted of later legislation (laws) issued during Justinian's reign.
- This Code of Law not only affected civil law, it also affected canon law
- "Canon law" is another way of saying church law. It is the law that governs all things having to do with religion.
- Justinian did not separate church and state.
- Justinian actually persecuted non Christians.
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