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The Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) is a fundamental work in jurisprudence issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor.
It is the basis of Latin jurisprudence (including ecclesiastical Canon law: ecclesia vivit lege romana) and a unique document about life in the Roman Empire at the time. It is a collection that gathers the many sources in which the leges (laws) and the other rules were expressed or published: proper laws, senatorial consults (senatus consulta), imperial decrees, case law, and jurists' opinions and interpretations (responsa prudentum).
The Corpus represented a true juridical revolution, organising Roman law into a convenient form and organic scheme, which became the basis for all modern Civil Law (apart from obvious adaptations, such as those in Scottish law.)
The work was directed by Tribonian, a quaestor, and distributed in three parts: Digesto (or "Pandectae"), Institutiones, the Codex. A fourth part, the Novels (or "Novellae Constitutiones"), was added later.
Codex Justinianus
The Codex was the first part to be completed on April 7, 529.
It collects the Roman imperial constitutiones mainly referring to those of the age of Hadrian, extracted by both the Codex Theodosianus and by private collections (among which the Codex Gregorianus and the Codex Hermogenianus). Due to the legal reforms by the same Justinian, this work needed to be updated, so a second edition of the Codex was issued in 534, after the Digesto.
Institutiones
As the digesto neared completion, Tribonian and two professors, Theophilus and Dorotheus, made a sort of manual for jurists, called the instutitiones or the elements. As there were four elements, the manual also consists of four books. The instutitiones are largely based on the institutiones of Gaius as about two thirds of the institutiones text consist of literal quotes from Gaius. The institutiones were used as a manual for jurists in training since 21 November 533 and were given the authority of law on 30 December 533 along with the digesto.
Online translation
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