CORPUS JURIS CIVI´LIS
CORPUS JURIS CIVI´LIS is the term which, since the
end of the 16th century, has been used to denote Justinian's three great
compilations--the Institutes, the Digest or Pandects, and the Code (together
with the Novels), which form one compact body of law, and were considered as
such by the glossators, or law school of Bologna, at the beginning of the
12th century, who divided it into five volumina. The Digest was distributed
into the three first volumes under the respective names of “Digestum
vetus,”
“Infortiatum,” and “Digestum novum;” the fourth
volume contained the first nine books of the “Codex repetitae
praelectionis;” in the fifth were the Institutes, the
“liber authenticorum” (Novels) and the three last books of
the Code. This division into five volumes is found in the oldest editions of
the Corpus Juris Civilis, but its portions are now usually arranged in the
order Institutes, Digest, Code, Novels. The name “Corpus Juris
Civilis” seems to have originated with Dionysius Gothofredus, who
prefixed it to his edition of the Justinianean compilations towards the end
of the 16th century: it is especially used in contradistinction to the
“Corpus Juris Canonici” or Canon Law.
Most editions of the Corpus also contain thirteen
[p. 1.552]edicts of Justinian, five constitutions of Justin the younger, and several
of the younger Tiberius, and a series of constitutions of Justinian, Justin,
and Tiberius; 113 Novels of Leo, a constitution of Zeno, and a number of
constitutions of different emperors under the name of
Βασιλικαὶ διατάξεις; the Canones sanctorum et venerandorum
Apostolorum, Libri Feudorum, a constitution of the Emperor Frederick II.,
two of the Emperor Henry VII. called
extravagantes,
and a Liber de pace Constantiae. Sometimes there is also to be found an
attempt to reconstruct the Twelve Tables, the Praetorian Edict, and other
celebrated monuments of the older law.
The Roman Law, as received in Europe, consists only of the Corpus juris, i.
e. the three compilations of Justinian, and the Novels by which he
supplemented them; and it is only received within the limits and in the form
which was given to it in the famous school of Bologna. Accordingly, all the
ante-Justinianean law is now excluded from all practical application, as are
the Greek texts in the Digest, for which the translations received at
Bologna are substituted, and also the few unimportant restorations in the
Digest, and the more important restorations in the Code. Of the three
collections of Novels that only is received which is called Authenticum, and
in the abbreviated form which was given to it at Bologna, called the
Vulgata.
But, on the other hand, there are received the additions made to the Code in
Bologna by the reception of the Authentica of the Emperors Frederick I. and
Frederick II., and the still more numerous Authentica of Irnerius. The
application of the matter comprised within these limits of the Corpus juris
has not been determined by the school of Bologna, but by the operation of
other principles, such as the customary law of different European countries,
and the development of law. Various titles of the Corpus juris have little
or no application in modern times; for instance, that part of the Code in
particular which relates to constitutional forms and administration
(Savigny,
System, vol. i. p. 66).
Some editions of the Corpus juris are published with the
glossae of the great Bolognese lawyers, and some without: the
latest edition with them is that of J. Fehdius, Lugd. 1627, six vols. fol.
Of the editions without the
glossae the most
important are those of Russardus, Lugd. 1560-61, fol., several times
reprinted; Contius, Lugd. 1571 and 1581, 15 vols., 12mo; Lud. Charondae,
1575, fol.; Dionysii Gothofredi, Lugd. 1583, 4to. The best modern edition of
the Corpus Juris Civilis is by Mommsen and Krueger, Berlin, 1877.
[
G.L] [
J.B.M]
