Corpus Juris Civilis

The Corpus Juris Civilis (CIC or, for better distinction from the Church Corpus Iuris Canonici, also CICiv, dt: "Inventory of civil law " ) includes the legislation that from 528-534 AD by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian older imperial decrees since Hadrian ( Codex Justinian, first published in 529, with effect from December 30 533 in the second edition with the force of law ), revised older textbooks ( Institutiones Iustiniani published 533 ) and the Roman jurists ( Digests or Pandects writings, published 533 ) was compiled under the direction of the quaestor sacri palatii Tribonian. A new edition of the Code of Justinian was released in late 534. This is the version we know today. For Corpus Iuris also include the laws of Justinian from the period after completion of the codification ( Novellae ), which were in private collections ( and mostly only in the Greek version ) survived.

The name Corpus Juris Civilis is not contemporary; he was only coined in humanism. (Lit.: The name comes from the factory Corpus Iuris Civilis from 1583 by Dionysius Gothofredus ( 1549-1622 ), an edition of the Justinian texts, and he was therefore applied only starting from this time on the previously known laws work of the Emperor. )

The codification of Roman law represented a feat, especially given the short time available. Older codices were obsolete and this revision of the law facilitated in future litigation significantly. In some respects ( for example, concerning the legal status of women and slaves ), it was at a CIC from today's perspective, sometimes quite advanced piece of legislation. For those days, however, it was an expression of conservatism, since the last time was granted to the ideas of the Roman legal tradition to the demands of the Christian Church the primacy in several respects: for example, the divorce was expressly allowed, and also the private legal status of women, which had steadily improved over the course of the Roman Empire, was after the CIC still much cheaper than they were then, there in the Christian Middle ages.

The historical background of the new codification formed the steady and already perceived by contemporaries as unstoppable loss of influence of the Roman culture. Justinian wanted to refer explicitly to the great Roman past. It was decided, therefore, the highly differentiated Roman law, which existed in a bewildering variety of legal sources (old laws, Emperor sayings, writings of jurists, etc.) scattered to summarize in a plant and keep it. In this case, the one law should be eliminated, which was no longer in Late Antiquity; Moreover, the old legal sources were partly changed and adapted to the new legal situation. This was done by omitting certain rules or the old legal texts formulated somewhat differently.

Construction of the plant and Date

The parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis are:

• Institutiones ( = a legal textbook on Introduction to Codex and Pandects that was mitveröffentlicht equal by law and thus has special authority. Should not be confused are the institutions with the Institutiones of Gaius. Institutions are based only on the work of Gaius. )
• Pandekten | digesta (Latin: structured presentation ) or Pandectai (Greek: all-encompassing ), 533/534 ( = Summary of applicable law )
• Codex Justinian ( = collected still valid imperial constitutions since the 2nd century AD)
• Novellae: Imperial laws that were enacted after the year 534, were collected in several collections of short stories and published. Although the novels of Justinian may have been, in addition published in Latin and which related to the East in Greek, the official Latin version was in most cases early lost because you did not understand in Ostrom more Latin from the 7th century, which is why for a very long mistakenly thought would have not given ( cf. Kaiser 2012). In the Middle Ages, the so-called Authenticum was then widespread in Western Europe - a collection of short stories with 134 novels: the Greek now in Latin (re) translation. Today, typically a collection of short stories is used with 168 short stories: the Greek in the original language.

The individual parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis are divided into books and each book again in title. Each title is again in leges ( singular: Lex, German Law ) divided, sometimes still may have a division into paragraphs.

History of the Corpus Iuris Civilis in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages

The reception of ancient law in the Middle Ages would prove to be an important aspect in the development of modern law. In late antiquity the Roman Empire in fact (not state law ) was divided into two parts of the empire. The Western Roman Empire went under during the Great Migration while the Eastern Roman Empire still was able to maintain for centuries; until the 7th century remained Ostrom doing a recognizable Roman Late Antique State. Emperor Justinian came from the Latin Balkan provinces and had the goal to restore the old Roman Empire. He began a restoration campaign ( against the Vandals, Ostrogoths and Visigoths ), so that the East Romans in the West could partially regain a foothold. In this time of new beginnings, the Corpus Iuris Civilis was created from 529 and therefore also set in the regained territories in the West into force. However, the Eastern Roman Empire could not keep large parts of its to 554 reclaimed areas in Italy long against the advancing Lombards since 568; to 625 Southern Spain fell back to the Visigoths, Africa and then went towards the end of the 7th century, the Arabs lost. The Corpus Juris Civilis was in Italy, although for the Roman citizens continued, but it was largely cut off from further legal development. This was done only by the stories of the Eastern Roman Emperor in Byzantium, where the Greek nearly ubiquitous after Justinian. This is why most novels of collections of short stories have been ( as ) written after 535 not only in Latin, but in addition also in Greek - only those laws that explicitly referred to the Latin -speaking areas of the empire or the entire Roman Empire, were an exception. But at least the 7th century in the Latin East was so uncommon that Greek is now also became the language of the law and the Corpus Juris Civilis could be used in translations only here. The Latin version of most novels was to be lost ( see above).

In the western part of the former Roman Empire, the Corpus Iuris Civilis, remained on, for example, Pope Gregory the Great around 600 repeated reference took a certain time known. However, there simplified the highly complex classical Roman law; this was done not only by the influence of the Germanic legal customs, but was already in late antiquity developments ( vulgar ) created: the sophisticated Corpus Iuris Civilis was missing after the Migration sponsorship in the form, properly trained lawyers and it corresponded less and less the prevailing social conditions and the order related legal requirements. The Germanic rulers of the successor kingdoms enacted their own laws collections, mostly a mix of Roman and Germanic legal ideas were ( Germanic tribal rights ) and also more on the Theodosian Code of 438 as in the Codex Justinian based. It dealt consequently less and less with the Roman law - this is more likely when the Eastern Roman Emperor in 600 their political influence on Western Europe and largely declining as her kingdom fell into a deep crisis. Around this time, Latin lost in the East definitively the status of a legal and administrative language, so that the Byzantine scholars no longer understood the Corpus Iuris henceforth generally. The most extensive part of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the Pandects, therefore, came mid-7th century in the East and West into oblivion.

The rediscovery of the Corpus Iuris Civilis must be dated to the mid-11th century (so-called Littera Florentina ). Learning about these text fragments were amplified ahead in the second half of the 11th century by Irnerius in Bologna.

Rediscovery and reception

The rediscovery of the Digest by Italian scholars paved the way for the emergence of modern jurisprudence. Irnerius was the first to scientifically edited the Digest on a larger scale. I think he was teacher of rhetoric, so someone that deals with ancient texts (including texts ) employed. In the time of Irnerius legal texts were not of such a high level, as is to be found in the Digest. ( The Germanic legal records of the early Middle Ages were even dismissed as " barbarians laws" in comparison to the rediscovered Roman law of humanist jurists. ) It is assumed that Irnerius have been amazed at the quality of the Digest needs and interested to become acquainted with the unknown matter. He also seems to have been about teaching, first well to further rhetorical purposes, but also to teach soon the law itself, which is laid down in the Digest.

From the first students who continued the scientific study of the Digest, and then also the other parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis (see Glossator ), was a law school in Bologna. Soon, the study was there of so highly attractive that students from all over Europe came to Bologna to study there. Later in other places universities originated first in northern Italy, then throughout Europe with a scientific law teaching ( cf. Common Law ).

After the study, the students were taught as lawyers back to their home countries to initially assume high positions in the church and in the secular administration there. In exercising their duties, the lawyers were able to apply their learned skills on Roman law, and partly also turned right contents of the Corpus Iuris Civilis in handy. Later learned lawyers also took positions in the judiciary and there gradually displaced the so-called uneducated judges ( lay judges ) who had not studied Roman law, but said, due to local legal customs law. A highlight of this development is the creation of the Imperial Supreme Court, the highest court of the Holy Roman Empire, in which had to be learned jurists half of the adjudicatory assessors. Roman law ( and thus also the CIC) but has already played in the imperial politics of the Holy Roman Emperor from Frederick I Barbarossa a not to be underestimated, as the emperors tried on the basis of late antique law, to strengthen their own position. The Last Emperor, the laws then allowed to insert into the CIC, Henry VII was the beginning of the 14th century.

The Corpus Juris Civilis was formed in continental Europe for many centuries the most authoritative source of law (see Common Law ), where there was a combination of Roman and indigenous rights in practice ( cf. usus modernus ). With the era of natural law it has been superseded in many European countries by national codifications, however, which were based on the scientifically processed right of the Corpus Iuris and in his tradition are (eg the French Civil Code, the Prussian General Land Law or the Austrian General Civil Code). In Germany, the Corpus Iuris Civilis was in some areas until the entry into force of the Civil Code (BGB ) on January 1, 1900 even if only subsidär. Also, the BGB has its roots in scientific processed (see Pandektenwissenschaft ) Corpus Iuris Civilis.

Editions of the Corpus Juris Civilis

• Theodor Mommsen, Paul Krueger (ed.): Corpus Iuris Civilis, Hildesheim, 1889, ISBN 3-296-12101-3
• Okko Behrends, Rolf Knütel, Berthold Kupisch and Hans Hermann Seiler ( ed.): Corpus Iuris Civilis. Text and translation, Heidelberg 1995 et seq, ISBN 3-8114-4533-2 ( have been published: institutions; Digests 1-34 [as February 2013 ] )
• Okko Behrends, Rolf Knütel, Berthold Kupisch (ed.): Corpus Iuris Civilis. The institutions. Text and translation. 3rd revised edition. Müller, Heidelberg, inter alia, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8252-1764-8, ( UTB of Science - University Handbooks 1764 law ).
• C.E. Otto, B. Schilling, C.F.F. Sintenis (ed.): The Corpus Juris Civilis. Leipzig: Focke, 1830 ( old German translation ) - Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf 1 band. Second band. 3 band. 4 band. 5th volume. 6 band. Volume 7