Corpus Juris Civilis

[Latin, The body of the civil law.] The name given in the early seventeenth century to the collection of Civil Law based upon the compilation and Codification of the Roman system of Jurisprudence directed by the Emperor Justinian I during the years from 528 to 534 a.d.

Corpus Juris Civilis

Justinian's compilation of the Roman law for his empire. It is in four parts: the Institutes (a student introduction); the Digest or Pandects (a collation in four sections of the Roman law from the jurists, which was, however, heavily interpolated by the compilers); the Codex or Code (a compilation of legislative measures); and the Novels (some later supplementary laws). Both the Digest and the Institutes were to form the basis of the later revival of Roman law throughout the continental European world. They are still the object of intense study and debate today.

Collins Dictionary of Law © W.J. Stewart, 2006

CORPUS JURIS CIVILIS. The body of the civil law. This, is the name given to a collection of the civil law, consisting of Justinian's Institutes, the Pandects or Digest, the Code, and the Novels.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.

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References in periodicals archive

The Justinian code in Louisiana implied that slaves were not chattel, they were unlucky people who were in bondage, and sometimes owners permitted slaves to engage in commercial activities.

Slavery and the education of blacks in Spanish Florida and New Orleans/Ispanyol Floridasi ve New Orleans'taki siyahlarin egitim ve kolelik durumlari

Costantino's notarial craft provided his community with its legal defense to counter the swords of the Count: his skill with pens, ink, and parchment, his familiarity with the regularized formula necessary to draft documents, his training in the Justinian Code and the Digest at the notary college of Udine, his access to advocates when necessary, his ability to manipulate the itinerant Venetian judges of the Auditori Nuovi, who themselves lacked formal legal training, and most of all his command of the provisions of Buia's precious statuti, which by the comparatively weak community standards of the region were remarkably strong in protecting the autonomy of the town.

The idea of community in Renaissance Italy

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