Justinian’s compilation

The purpose of Justinian’s compilation was to restate the whole of Roman law in a single legal source of law with binding force over the entire empire. Justinian’s major legal work, often called a codification, was not a codification in the modern sense but rather an up-to-date and systematized compilation or collection of legislation and legal literature.

The Justinian compilation, composed in Latin, consists of three independent legal projects, all related by his single overriding intention for the whole: a body of imperial constitutions (the Code), a body of brief extracts of jurisprudence (the Digest or, in Greek, Pandects), and a textbook for the students of the whole empire (the Institutes). After the publication of the Code, Justinian also continued with his legislative efforts for more than thirty years by promulgating about 150 new constitutions (the Novels: novae leges). Some of these novels were to be applied throughout the empire, some of them in just part of it. They were written in Latin or Greek, based on their intended scope of application. The authoritative edition of Justinian’s Corpus Iuris Civilis was produced at the end of the nineteenth century by Theodor Mommsen in collaboration with Paul Krüger (the Digest), and by Paul Krüger himself (the Institutes and the Code).

Some of Justinian’s constitutions usually referred to by their first words (e.g., Imperatoriam, Tanta) provide information about the plan for the codi­fication. The main architect and inspiration for the codification was Tribonian. Born in Side, in Pamphylia, around 500 ce, Tribonian was a practicing lawyer and an erudite writer in both Latin and Greek. A man of great talent and capacities, in 529 he was appointed quaestor sacripalatii (senior legal official). He was a member of the commission in charge of the codification of imperial law (529) and of the commission in charge of the preparation of the body of classical legal literature. In 532 he was removed from his office of quaestor, but he continued working on the legal codification as a magister officiorum. In 533, he headed the commission that prepared the Institutes and, one year later, the commission of the second edition of Justinian’s Code. He died around 542.