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Uzone.id – Roman Law has been developing for centuries since the Roman Empire. The Law itself comes from various sources, including laws issued by the king and emperor, court decisions, and opinions from legal experts.
As time went by, Roman Law became more complex and hard to comprehend. The scattered documents also created legal administration problems because many regulations conflicted with each other or were no longer relevant.
The 6th century marked a crucial period in the history of Roman Law as major codification attempts reached their peak. During that time, the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium), centered in Constantinople, experienced a golden age under the reign of Emperor Justinian I.
The Emperor had big ambitions to regain the glory of the Roman Empire and reunite the territories that had been separated. Therefore, a Roman law codification is very much needed to fulfill his ambitions.
Emperor of Byzantium, Justinianus 1, led the massive effort to codify and tidy up the scattered and disorganized Roman law himself. He successfully compiled a comprehensive collection of law, later known as the Corpus Juris Civilis or Civil Law Entity. The result of the attempt has become a very influential legal legacy for the European law system and also a milestone in the history of legal codification in general.
Codification Process
After the team of legal experts appointed by Justinianus collected all the Roman law sources, the codification process was then carried out through 3 main stages:
- Codex Justinianus: In this first step, the legal experts’ team led by Tribonianus was assigned to collect and rearrange the existing imperial law. This codex contains more than 4000 laws made by the previous emperor. It was published in 529 and later revised in 534.
- Digesta (Pandecta): The second step was preparing the Digesta, which was published in 533. This document contains a compilation of opinions and more than 9000 law analyses from ancient Roman jurists, such as Ulpianus, Gaius, and Paul. Digestas are designed as guides for judges and law experts in applying the law.
- Institutiones (Institution): As a complement, Justinianus commanded the making of Institutiones as a guidebook for law students. Divided into four books, it gives a systematic overview of the basic Roman law and how it was used in practice.
After the Codex, Digesta, and Institutiones were completed, a book called the Novellae was published, containing a compilation of the new laws enacted by Justinianus.
Corpus Juris Civilis
Corpus Juris Civilis covers various legal fields, including civil, criminal, procedural, and international law. Some of the essential topics in Corpus Juris Civilis are:
- Personal Law: Individual rights and obligations, marriage, divorce, inheritance.
- Property Law: Property rights, obligations, contracts, delicts.
- Procedural Law: Judicial procedures, evidence, execution of decisions.
- Public Law: Constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law.
Roman Law Codification Attempts Impact
The 6th-century codification of Roman law significantly impacted the people of Byzantium. With the organized legal system, the judges made more consistent decisions, and the citizens got legal protection.
However, the codification’s impacts were more than that; the codification succeeded in preserving Roman Law and sparked the spread of Roman Law to various regions due to the use of Corpus Juris Civilis as a reference for many legal experts.
It also impacts the development of law globally, even for modern law principles such as property rights, contracts, and delicts. Roman law codification also became the basis for developing civil law, which was applied in many European and Latin American countries.
The influence of Roman law was also felt in European colonies in Asia and Africa. The basic principles established by Roman law, such as justice and equality before the law, became an essential part of the international legal system.
The history of the codification of Roman law in the 6th century is one of the crucial milestones in the development of law. The ambitious project led by Emperor Justinian I not only succeeded in tidying up and unifying the laws of the Byzantine Empire but also provided a legacy that endures to this day.
