The Institutes (Latin : Institutiones) is a component of the Corpus Juris Civilis , the 6th-century codification of Roman law ordered by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. It is largely based upon the Institutes of Gaius, a Roman jurist of the second century A.D. The other parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis are the Digest , the Codex Justinianus , and the Novellae Constitutiones ("New Constitutions" or "Novels"). [1]
Justinian's Institutes was one part of his effort to codify Roman law and to reform legal education, of which the Digest also was a part. [2] Whereas the Digest was to be used by advanced law students, Justinian's Institutes was to be a textbook for new students. [3] The need for a new text for first year students was addressed as early as 530 in the constitution "Deo auctore," where reference is made to something "...which may be promulgated to replace the elementary works, so that the raw intelligence of the student, nourished by a simple diet, may proceed more easily to advanced legal studies." [4] Under the supervision of Tribonian, two law professors (Theophilus and Dorotheus) were assigned to extract statements about the basic institutions ("Institutiones") of Roman law from the teaching books created by writers of "authority" (as defined in the Law of Citations). The bulk of this new Institutes is the Institutes of Gaius, much of it taken verbatim; but it also uses material from the Institutes of Marcian, Florentinus, Ulpian, and perhaps Paulus (the other writers of "authority"). [5] There is some debate over which of the commission members is responsible for what part of the new Institutes. Most recently it has been suggested that Theophilus and Dorotheus created the extracts taken from the older works, while Tribonian revised and added new imperial laws. [6]
This new version of the Institutes was published on November 21, 533 and promulgated with the Digest on December 30, 533. [7] These new Institutes were not only a textbook for first year law students, but, according to the decree that promulgated them (C. Tanta), they carried the force of law. [8] First year law students used Justinian's Institutes as their textbook for centuries. [9]
The Institutes of Justinian is arranged much like Gaius's work, being divided into three subjects in four books covering "persons," "things,", and "actions." The first book considers the legal status of persons (personae), the second and third deal with things (res), while the fourth discusses Roman civil procedure (actiones). Unlike the Digest, the extracts do not provide inscriptions indicating from whom the original material was taken. [10]
Justinian's Institutes was largely unknown in the West. The earliest known manuscript are fragments of a Veronese palimpsest of the ninth century. [11] The first printed edition of Justinian's Institutes was Petrus Schoyff's in 1468. [12] Scholars using the Veronese palimpsest suggested changes to the existing text, and these criticisms resulted in the definitive texts by Paul Krüger and Eduard Huschke in 1867 and 1868 respectively. [13] The most frequently used modern version of Justinian's Institutes is that of Krüger, [14] which is in volume one of the Krüger, Mommsen, Kroll and Schoell stereotype edition. [15]
There are several translations of Justinian's Institutes into English, the better of the older ones being those of J.B. Moyle and Thomas Collett Sandars. [16] More recent translations by Birks & McLeod are also available as facing editions with Krüger's Latin. [17] Samuel Parsons Scott translated the Institutes into English as part of his translation of the entire "Corpus Juris Civilis," but his translation has not been well received. [18]
The Corpus JurisCivilis is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, enacted from 529 to 534 by order of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It is also sometimes referred to metonymically after one of its parts, the Code of Justinian.
Herennius Modestinus, or simply Modestinus, was a civil servant and a celebrated Roman jurist, a student of Ulpian who flourished about 250 AD.
Tribonian was a Byzantine jurist and advisor. During the reign of the Emperor Justinian I, he supervised the revision of the legal code of the Byzantine Empire. He has been described as one of the wisest collaborators of Justinian.
The Digest, also known as the Pandects, was a compendium or digest of juristic writings on Roman law compiled by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 530–533 AD. It is divided into 50 books.
Gaius was a Roman jurist. Little is known about his personal life, including his name. It is also difficult to ascertain the span of his life, but it is assumed he lived from AD 110 to at least AD 179, as he wrote on legislation passed within that time.
The Codex Theodosianus is a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 and the compilation was published by a constitution of 15 February 438. It went into force in the eastern and western parts of the empire on 1 January 439. The original text of the codex is also found in the Breviary of Alaric, promulgated on 2 February 506.
Byzantine law was essentially a continuation of Roman law with increased Orthodox Christian and Hellenistic influence. Most sources define Byzantine law as the Roman legal traditions starting after the reign of Justinian I in the 6th century and ending with the Fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. Although future Byzantine codes and constitutions derived largely from Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis, their main objectives were idealistic and ceremonial rather than practical. Following Hellenistic and Near-Eastern political systems, legislations were tools to idealize and display the sacred role and responsibility of the emperor as the holy monarch chosen by God and the incarnation of law "nómos émpsychos", thus having philosophical and religious purposes that idealized perfect Byzantine kingship.
Dorotheus was a professor of Roman law in the law school of Berytus in Phoenicia. While his date of birth is unknown, he must at least have died before 542. He was one of the three commissioners appointed by the Eastern Roman emperor Justinian I to draw up a book of Institutes, after the model of the Institutes of Gaius, which should serve as an introduction to the Digest already completed and promulgated on 16 December 533. His colleagues in this project were Tribonian and Theophilus; and their work was accomplished in 533 and they were all granted with the highest title quaestor sacri palatii illustris. Except for the first code of 7 April 529, Dorotheus participated in the compiling of all Justinian's codes, including the second edition of the Codex Constitutionum.
Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus was son of Cato the Elder by his first wife Licinia, and thence called Licinianus, to distinguish him from his half-brother, Marcus Salonianus, the son of Salonia. He was distinguished as a jurist.
Julius Paulus, often simply referred to as Paul in English, was one of the most influential and distinguished Roman jurists. He was also a praetorian prefect under the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus.
Lucius Octavius Cornelius Publius Salvius Iulianus Aemilianus, generally referred to as Salvius Julianus, or Julian the Jurist, or simply Julianus, was a well known and respected jurist, public official, and politician who served in the Roman imperial state. Of north African origin, he was active during the long reigns of the emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, as well as the shorter reign of Marcus Aurelius' first co-Emperor, Lucius Verus.
Fred Heinrich Blume, or Fred H. Blume, as he referred to himself, was a German-born American attorney and judge. He served as a justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court for 42 years, from 1922 to 1963, and by himself translated from Latin into English the Codex Justinianus and the Novels, two parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis.
The Novellae Constitutiones, or Justinian's Novels, are now considered one of the four major units of Roman law initiated by Roman emperor Justinian I in the course of his long reign. The other three pieces are: the Codex Justinianus, the Digest, and the Institutes. Justinian's quaestor Tribonian was primarily responsible for compiling these last three. Together, the four parts are known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. Whereas the Code, Digest, and Institutes were designed by Justinian as coherent works, the Novels are diverse laws enacted after 534 that never were officially compiled during his reign.
The Institutes are a beginners' textbook on Roman private law written around 161 AD by the classical Roman jurist Gaius. They are considered to be "by far the most influential elementary-systematic presentation of Roman private law in late antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times". The content of the textbook was thought to be lost until 1816, when a manuscript of it − probably of the 5th century − was discovered by Barthold Georg Niebuhr.
Clyde Pharr was an American classics professor at Ohio Wesleyan University, Southwestern Presbyterian University, Vanderbilt University, and, finally, at the University of Texas at Austin.
Samuel Parsons Scott, known as S. P. Scott, was an American attorney, banker and scholar. He was born in Hillsboro, Ohio, where he received a classics-based education at the Hillsboro Academy; he went on to earn his A.B. degree from the Miami University in 1868, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and obtained his A.M. degree from the same institution the following year. Scott was licensed to practice law in 1868 and was an attorney for several years in Leavenworth, Kansas and in San Francisco, but he left the practice of law in 1875 to return to Hillsboro and the family banking business. Thereafter, he also traveled in Europe, studied, and wrote. Late in his life, he served for many years on the editorial staff of the American Bar Association's Comparative Law Bureau.
The law school of Berytus was a center for the study of Roman law in classical antiquity located in Berytus. It flourished under the patronage of the Roman emperors and functioned as the Roman Empire's preeminent center of jurisprudence until its destruction in AD 551.
The Code of Justinian is one part of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the codification of Roman law ordered early in the 6th century AD by Justinian I, who was Eastern Roman emperor in Constantinople. Two other units, the Digest and the Institutes, were created during his reign. The fourth part, the Novellae Constitutiones, was compiled unofficially after his death but is now also thought of as part of the Corpus Juris Civilis.
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