Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/635

 CIVIL LAW 623 important of those new Roman law collections among the German nations are: 1. The edict of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, which he issued in Rome in 500, intended not only for the conquered Romans, but also for the Ostrogoths. This edict is derived entirely from the Roman law, and especially from the Codex Theodosianus, the later novels, and Pauli Sententice receptce. But these sources were used so arbitrarily, that the character of the Roman law can scarcely be traced in them. 2. The Brevia/rium Alaricianum among the Visigoths. Alaric II., king of the Visigoths, published in 506 a code of laws affecting only the Romans living in his kingdom, which had been collected under his order by a committee of 16 Roman lawyers, from the Codices Gre- gorianus, Hermogenianus, and Theodosianus, as well as from some of the later novels, and from the writings of Gaius, Paulus, and Papi- nianus. Most of the passages are accompanied by a paraphrase (interpretation), in very bad Latin, but which was then intelligible. This Visigothic collection is now called Breviarium A laricianum or BrevariumAniani, from Anian, the private secretary of Alaric, who was ordered to authenticate by his signature the copies of the Breviarium sent to the magistrates of the coun- ties. In the middle ages it is commonly refer- red to under the titles Corpus Theodosianum, Lex Theodosiana, Liber Legum, o? Lex Romano,. 3. Between the years 517 and 534 a Lex Ro- mana was also published among the Burgun- dians, intended for the Roman subjects in the Burgundian empire, and which is known by the name of Papiani Liber Responsorum, or Papiani Reaponsum. The greater part of this collection is derived immediately from the pure sources of Roman law. After the time of The- odosius II. nothing was done in the East to facilitate the administration and study of the law until Justinian became emperor in 527. During the 38- years of his government (527- 565) he made legislation and the promotion of the study of the law the principal objects of his attention ; and fortunately he found jurists possessed of the knowledge and abilities requi- site for his purpose. They made by his order those collections of law which continue in legal force in many countries to the pr^ent day. Justinian was the first after Theodosius who undertook a new collection of the imperial constitutions, which was intended to form a substitute for all previous collections. He ap- pointed a committee of ten lawyers with very extensive powers. At their head was the ex- quaistor of the palace Johannes, and among them the well known lawyer Tribonian. His instructions were to select in the briefest man- ner all that was still of value in the existing collections, as well as in the later constitu- tions ; to omit all obsolete matter ; to intro- duce such alterations as were required by the times ; and to divide the whole into appropri- ate titles. "Within 14 months the committee had finished their labors. Justinian confirmed 194 this new code, which consisted of 12 books, by a special ordinance, and prohibited the use of the older collections of rescripts and edicts. This first code of Justinian, which is now called Codex Vetus, has been entirely lost. The Pandects. After the above mentioned code was completed, Justinian ordered Tri- bonian (530), who was now quaestor, and 16 other jurists, to select all the most valuable passages from the writings of the old jurists which were considered as authoritative, and to arrange them according to their subjects under suitable heads. In regard to the writings from which they should extract, they were exempt- ed from the Theodosian law of citation, and were not confined to the letter of the writings selected, but were allowed at -their discretion to abbreviate, to add, and to make such alter- ations as they considered adapted to the times ; and they were especially ordered to remove all contradictions of the old jurists, to avoid all repetitions, and to omit all that had be- come entirely obsolete. The consequence of this was, that the extracts did not everywhere truly represent the original, but were often in- terpolated and amended in conformity to the existing law. Alterations, modifications, and additions of this kind are now usually called emblemata Triboniani. This great work was completed by the commissioners in three years. They had extracted from the writings of no fewer than 39 jurists all that they considered valuable for the purpose of this compilation. Over every extract, which regularly consists of a principium and one or more paragraphs, a heading {inscriptio) was placed, containing the name of the work from which it was de- rived. The whole compilation, consisting of 50 books, was entitled "Digest or Pandects of the Eliminated Law, collected from all the ancient Law." The word Pandects is derived from the Greek TTOV, all, and <56xf iac i * re " ceive, because all that was valuable was to be comprised in them. This work was intended for practical use. The arrangement of the titles follows as closely as possible the order of the edict. Justinian divided the whole work into seven parts. The editors of the Pandects divided into three classes all the books from which extracts were to be made, and formed themselves into three sections. The first section read and extracted from the books on the civil law, to which belonged the books on Sabinus ; the second section ex- tracted from the books on the prastorian edict, especially from Ulpian on edicts; and the third section, from practical and casuistical writings, especially from Papiniani Respoma and Paulus's legal questions. Three branches of extracts were thus formed, the Sabinus branch, the edict branch, and the Papinian branch. From these three branches the single titles of the Pandects were composed. The foundation of each title was generally formed by that branch which furnished the most nu- merous and important fragments. The Pan- VOL. iv. 40