The Novels

After the enactment of the Codex repetitae praelectionis, Justinian’s legislative activity persevered unabated as political and social developments dictated changes in the law unforeseen by earlier legislation.

As the new enactments were introduced after the Code, they acquired the name of Novellae constitutiones or Novellae leges (new laws) and this is the derivation of the modern name, ‘Novels’. Before the end of Justinian’s reign, over 150 such enactments were issued with the great majority dating from the period prior to Tribonian’s death in 546. Most of these enactments addressed matters of administrative and ecclesiastical law and certain areas of private law (particularly family law and the law of intestate succession).^{^[624]} In the Constitutio Cordi of 16th November 534, Justinian expressed his intention to compile an official collection of these later laws when a sufficient array had been issued—but he never executed this intention. Information on this material is gleaned from a few private and unofficial collections created during and after Justinianstyle='font-size:10.0pt;line-height:110%'>’s reign, and assembled by later editors.

The oldest collection of Novels that we know of is the Epitome Iuliani, an abridged version of a collection of 124 constitutions dating from the period 535555. lulianus, a professor at the law school of Constantinople, compiled this collection during the reign of Justinian. It was probably intended for use in the recently recaptured Italy, as indicated by the fact that the Greek constitutions it contains were translated into Latin.^{^[625]}

Another work also written in Latin is the Authenticum (or liber Authenticorum), an anonymous collection of 134 constitutions originating from the period 535-536. The exact date of its publication is not ascertained—it may have been composed in the sixth century ad, but the oldest manuscript copies date from the eleventh century.

Irnerius, a leading representative of the School of the Glossators (1113th cent.), regarded it as an authentic, official collection of Novels ordered by Justinian for use in Italy (hence its designation as Authenticum). The prevalent view today is that Irnerius was mistaken and that it was likely designed as a teaching aid for use in the law schools of the empire. The collection embodies the Latin Novels in their original text and the Greek ones in a faulty Latin translation.^{^[626]}

The most extensive collection of Novels is the so-called Collectio Graeca, consisting of 168 constitutions issued in Greek by Justinian and his successors Justin II (565-578) and Tiberius II (578-5 82).^{^[627]} It was published after 575, probably during the reign of Tiberius II, and is accessible to us through two manuscripts originating from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.^{^[628]} Although the Collectio Graeca was prevalently used in the Byzantine East,^{^[629]} it was apparently unknown in the West until the fifteenth century. It was introduced in Western Europe by Byzantine scholars who fled to Italy shortly before and after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks (1453) and was brought to light by the humanist scholars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.^{^[630]}

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Source: Mousourakis G.. Roman Law and the Origins of the Civil Law Tradition. Springer,2015. — 339 p.. 2015

The Novels

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