THE MERITS OF CODIFICATION
8 The revival of legislative activity from the twelfth century and the proliferation of statutes which followed soon brought about a need for systematic collections of the law in force.
In the Middle Ages and in early modern times, both church and state promulgated such collections. In compiling them, the authorities attempted to organize, to prune and to adapt bodies of sometimes very disparate rules. The sixth century Corpus iuris civilis OfJustinian was the ancient model for the new compilations, the first of which was the Decretales of Gregory IX of 1234 and the last the Polnoe Sobranie fakonov published in forty-five volumes in Russia by Tsar Nicholas I in 1830 and followed in 1832 by fifteen volumes of the Svod Zakonov."These compilations of old and new statutes did rearrange the law and bring it up to date, but they differ fundamentally from codes in the strict sense. A true codification is an original work and, in contrast to a compilation, must be intended as a general, exhaustive regulation of a particular area of law (for example, civil law or civil procedure). Furthermore, the drafting of a code involves a coherent programme and a consistent logical structure. The language of a modern code ought to be accessible to all and, as far as possible, free from archaisms and technical professional jargon. Codes of this type appeared only from the eighteenth century onwards.'2
In theory two types of code can be imagined: a codification with the sole aim of (re)formulation and systematization of the law in force, which avoids all substantial reform and all revolutionary innovation, and which faithfully reflects the past, limiting itself to recording and ordering the existing law.'3 On the other hand, a codification can be conceived as an instrument of social reform aimed at the future. In fact all modern codifications belong, no doubt in differing degrees, to the latter category. In the eighteenth century insistent demands for codification were expressions of a desire for innovation and progress, rather than of a hope that the existing legal order would be compiled and ordered.
The promulgation of codes was sometimes the work of enlightened despots, acting on their own initiative and on their own paternalistic convictions, and influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. There are examples in the German culture of the period. In other cases, the people or its representatives rebelled and decided to proclaim a code inspired by radical ideas. This was the case with the codifications of the years of intermediate law." The first contained 30,920 statutes and ordinances arranged in chronological order from 1649-1825; the second was a systematically ordered selection which contained elements of Roman law. In spite of efforts under Tsar Alexander I, inspired by the model of the Code civil of 1804, Russia had no civil code in the nineteenth century.
” Certain major ordinances of Louis XIV (for example that of 1667 already mentioned) can be considered codifications of particular areas of law. At the same time, however, some scholars envisaged more ambitious projects of codification (e.g. Leibniz’ Praefatio novi codicis of 1678). Guillaume de Lamoignon (to whom we shall return) hoped to compose a code applicable throughout France and based on the different sources of French law, ordinances, case law and customs, especially the custom of Paris. His attempts did not progress beyond a first sketch under the title Arrltes, completed about 1672. Daguesseau too wished to codify French law; but his work was limited to a few main ordinances in the area of civil law.
'5 One thinks for instance of the formidable ?Restatement of the Law’ in the United States.
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