The Corpus Juris Civilis

College of William & Mary Law SchoolWilliam & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository

Library Staff Publications The Wolf Law Library

2015

The Corpus Juris CivilisFrederick W. DingledyWilliam & Mary Law School, fwding@wm.edu

Copyright c 2015 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository.https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/libpubs

Repository CitationDingledy, Frederick W., "The Corpus Juris Civilis" (2015). Library Staff Publications. 118.https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/libpubs/118

The Corpus Juris Civilisby

Fred DingledySenior Reference Librarian

College of William & Mary Law Schoolfor Law Library of Louisiana and

Supreme Court of Louisiana Historical SocietyNew Orleans, LA – November 12, 2015

What we’ll cover

�History and Components of the Corpus Juris

Civilis

�Relevance of the Corpus Juris Civilis

�Researching the Corpus Juris Civilis

{ {Diocletian (r. 284-305)

Codex Gregorianus(ca. 291)

Codex Hermogenianus(295)

Theodosius II(r. 408-450)

Codex Theodosianus (438)

Previously…

Byzantine Empire in 500

Emperor Justinian I(r. 527-565)

“Arms and lawshave always flourished by the reciprocal help of each other.”

528: Justinian appoints Codex commission

Tribonian

529: Codex first ed.

Imperial constitutionesI: Ecclesiastical, legal system, adminII-VIII: PrivateIX: CriminalX-XII: Public

{ {Codex Liber

530: Digest commission532: Nika (Victory) Riots

Theodora (500-548)

533: Digest/Pandects

Digest: Writings by jurists

I: Public

II-XLVII: Private

XLVIII: Criminal

XLIX: Appeals + Treasury

L: Municipal, specialties, definitions

“Appalling arrangement”--Alan Watson

533: Justinian’s Institutes

First-year legal textbook

I: Persons

II: Things

III: Obligations

IV: Actions

533: Reform of Byzantinelegal education

First year: Institutes

Fifth year: Codex

Digest & Novels

{The Novels (novellae

constitutiones): Justinian’s constitutiones

534: Codex 2nd ed.565: Justinian dies

Justinian’s Empire in 555

Byzantine Empire in 717

The medieval revival

Holy Roman Emperor

Henry IV,

Abbot of Cluny, and Matilda of Canossa

1583: Dionysius Gothofredus, Corpus Juris Civilis

1753: George Harris, The Four

Books of Justinian’s Institutions

The 19th-century critical editions

Theodor Mommsen: Digest (1870)

{ {Justinian’s Institutes Codex

Paul Krueger: Institutes (1867) and

Codex (1877)

{ {Novels Wilhelm Kroll

Rudolf Schöll & Wilhelm Kroll: Novels (1895)

1904: Partial Englishtranslation of Digest

Charles Henry Monro

1932: Englishtranslation of CJC

S.P. Scott

1985: English translation of Digest

Alan Watson

ca. 1952: English translation of Codex

and Novels

Justice Fred H. Blume

{ {France Germany

European influence

{ {Spain Italy

European Influence

Bracton on the Laws and Customs of England

{“Secondly, Homonymiae, (as Justinian calleththem,) cases merely of iteration and repitition, are to be purged away…”

Sir Francis Bacon, A Proposition to His Majesty

{“I am this Day about beginning JustiniansInstitutions with Arnold Vinnius’sNotes.”

Diary of John Adams

{Dawson v. Winslow, Wythe 114, 119 (1791)

{Idaho v. Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Idaho, 521 U.S. 261, 284 (1997)

Modern U.S. references

William C.C. Claiborne

Edward Livingston

{

Batiza:

Code Napoleon: 709 provisions

Institutes:27 provisions

Digest:16 provisions

Civil Code of 1808

Corpus Juris Civilis

Code of 1808

Code Napoleon Las SietePartidas

Batiza Pascal

Louisiana Civil Codeof 1870, Art. 1621

Novel 115.3

La. Civil Code. (current)

Novel 115.3

La. Civil Code (current)

Researching the CJC

"Classification was not a strength of Roman jurisprudence. It was a methodology that the Romans borrowed enthusiastically from the Greeks, but in which they generally proved to be relatively inept."

- Andrew Borkowski & Paul du Plessis, Textbook on Roman Law (3d ed.), 153.

CJC research

�Secondary Sources

�Borkowski’s Textbook on Roman Law

�Cambridge Companion to Roman Law

�Justinian’s Institutes

�Thomas or Sandars translation

CJC Cite format(Edward Gibbon)

D 47.2.15.3

Part of CJC Book

Title

Law

Paragraph/Section

Older cites may only give Law+paragraph/section number

Bluebook Style (Rule T2.34)

�CODE JUST. 2.45.3 (Diocletian & Maximian290/293).

�DIG. 9.2.23 (Ulpian, Ad Edictum 18).

� J. INST. 2.23.1.

�NOV. 15.1 (535)

Online sources – Blume’s Codeand Novels (U. of Wyoming)

Online Sources – Watson’s Digest translation (Penn Press)

Online sources – archive.org

Online sources -- Hein

Tables of Contents

�Almost always present in print-first editions

�Often English+Latin

�Sometimes just English

Indexes

�Not in Monro’s or Watson’s Digest

�Other print-first parts of CJC have them

Pictures used

� Slide 4: Diocletian. In Diocletian's Palace, Split, Croatia, Hrvatska by User Alecconnell, Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diocletian_Bueste.JPG (Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

� Slide 4: Bust of Byzantine Empreror Theodosius II (reigned 408–450 AD) photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theodosius_II_Louvre_Ma1036.jpg (Licensed under CC BY 2.5)

� Slide 5: Rome and its Empire: From the Founding of Rome to the Downfall of the Empire by The Map as History. http://www.the-map-as-history.com/demos/tome12/12_03_founding_of_rome_downfall_empire.php

� Slide 6: Justinian’s Head. Mosaic from S. Vitale of Justinian and his Court. S. Vitale, Ravenna. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justinian_I#/media/File:Meister_von_San_Vitale_in_Ravenna.jpg (Public Domain)

� Slide 7: Tribonian bas-relief in the U.S. House of Representatives chamber, sculpture by Brenda Putnam, photo by Architect of the Capitol, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tribonian_bas-relief_in_the_U.S._House_of_Representatives_chamber.jpg (Public Domain)

� Slide 9: Selected Virginia legal titles including Daniel Call's copy of George Wythe's Decisions of Cases in Virginia by the High Court of Chancery (1795). http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/wythepedia/index.php/File:RarebooksWithWytheDecisionsOfCases.jpg

� Slide 9: Byzantine liturgical parchement scroll, 13th century. Exhibited in the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, November 12, 2009. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2049_-_Byzantine_Museum,_Athens_-_Parchement_scroll,_13th_century_-_Photo_by_Giovanni_Dall%27Orto,_Nov_12.jpg

Pictures used (cont.)� Slide 10: Winner of a Roman chariot race by unknown, Wikimedia Commons.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Winner_of_a_Roman_chariot_race.jpg (Public Domain)

� Slide 10: Theodora. Detail from the 6th-century mosaic "Empress Theodora and Her Court" in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna photo by The Yorck Project. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meister_von_San_Vitale_in_Ravenna_008.jpg (Public Domain)

� Slide 15: The Eastern Roman Empire (red) and its vassals (pink) in 555 AD during the reign of Justinian I byuser Tataryn77, Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Justinian555AD.png

(Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

� Slide 16: Byzantine Empire in 717 A.D. by users Amonixinator and Hoodinski, Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ByzantineEmpire717%2Bextrainfo%2Bthemes.svg (Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

� Slide 17: Life of the Countess Matilda of Canossa by unknown miniaturist, Italian (active 1160s). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:12th-century_painters_-_Life_of_the_Countess_Matilda_of_Canossa_-_WGA15961.jpg (Public Domain)

� Slide 18: Half-title from volume one of Corpus Juris Civilis. From William & Mary Law Library, user Lktesar. (Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/wythepedia/index.php/File:CorpusJurisCivilis1663v1HalfTitle.jpg

� Slide 19: Title page for D. Justiniani Institutionum Libri Quator, The Four Books of Justinian's Institutions. http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/wythepedia/index.php/File:DJustinianiInstitutionum1761.jpg

� Slide 20: Theodor Mommsen in 1863 by Louis Jacoby. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Mommsen?oldformat=true#/media/File:Theodor_Mommsen_02.jpg (Public Domain)

Pictures used (cont.)

� Slide 21: Wilhelm Kroll by anonymous. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wilhelm_Kroll.jpg� Slide 24: Samuel Parsons Scott by unknown.

http://romanlegaltradition.org/blog/index.php?post/2014/11/02/S.-P.-Scott%2C-translator-of-The-Civil-Law� Slide 25: Professor Alan Watson by user Soloviev1, Wikimedia Commons.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alan_watson_scholar.jpg (Public Domain)� Slide 26: From “About Fred H. Blume and the Annotated Justinian Code,”

http://www.uwyo.edu/lawlib/blume-justinian/� Slide 27: Frontispiece from Volume One of The Works of Francis Bacon,

http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/wythepedia/index.php/File:BaconWorks1740v1Frontispiece.jpg� Slide 31: A Painting of President John Adams by Asher B. Durand. Released by U.S. Navy.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_031029-N-6236G-001_A_painting_of_President_John_Adams_(1735-1826),_2nd_president_of_the_United_States,_by_Asher_B._Durand_(1767-1845)-crop.jpg (Public Domain)

� Slide 32: Portrait of George Wythe by David Silvette. http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/wythepedia/index.php/File:SilvetteWythe1979.jpg

� Slide 34: William C. C. Claiborne, Governor of Louisiana. Author unknown. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_C_C_Claiborne_rectangleLAState.jpg (Public Domain)

� Slide 34: Edward Livingston (1764 - 1836) of New York, USA (picture about 1823). Library of Congress. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edward_Livingston_of_New_York.jpg (Public Domain)

� Slide 36: Flag of France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_France.svg (Public Domain)� Slide 36: Flag of Spain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Spain.svg (Public Domain)

With thanks to Michael Umberger for his help.