History of Legal Sources

  • Constitutio Antoniniana
    212

    Constitutio Antoniniana

    Also known as The Edict of Caracalla. An edict whereby all free men in the Roman Empire were to be given Roman citizenship. This means that all new citizens of the Roman Empire could use ius civile (rather than ius latii or ius gentium) which was more favourable for them as it granted the greatest number of rights and legal equality. For the Roman Empire this had a positive impact in tax revenues.
  • Period: 212 to 476

    Post-classical Rome

  • Codex Gregorianus
    291

    Codex Gregorianus

    The exact date when the Codex was promulgated is unknown but probably around 291 - 294 AD. It was a collection of constitutions of Roman emperors from the period from 130s to 290s AD
  • 295

    Codex Hermogenianus

    It is unknown when this compilation of constitutions was published - there are opinions that it was published at the end of the third century or at the beginning of the fourth century. It contains mostly constitutions of Diocletian.
  • Edict of Milan
    313

    Edict of Milan

    This was an edict of the Roman Emperor Constantine (and Licinius) that gave legal status to Christianity and ended the persecution of the Christians. It also returned confiscated property to the Christians. Link to a translation of the edict can be found here: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/edict-milan.asp
  • 321

    First law of citation

    The first law of citation promulgated by Constantine the Great. It ordered that in legal procedures only original works of Papinianus can be used and comments of Papinianus's works shall not be allowed.
  • 322

    Second law of citation

    Promulgated also by Constantine the Great this law claimed that all original works of Paulus could be used including Sententiae Pauli.
  • 380

    Edict of Thessalonica

    An edict of Theodosius I. which made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire.
  • 426

    Third law of citation

    This was a Roman law from the post-classical period demonstrating the general degradation of jurisprudence. After this law only the works of 5 Roman jurists could be used: Gaius, Papinianus, Modestinus, Ulpianus, and Paulus. It shows that Roman jurisprudence of the time was solely based on repeating already existing opinions and not coming up with new innovative solutions. It was later included in Codex Theodosianus.
  • Codex Theodosianus
    438

    Codex Theodosianus

    This was a compilation of the Roman laws especially constitutions from the fourth century. It was quite influential and was used also as a source for later Visigoth codes.
  • 460

    Edictum Theodorici

    The exact date is unknown but the only surviving text was based on an edition from the 16th century. It was a collection of laws (mostly criminal) that were to be applied to Romans and Barbarians and to settle issues between them.
  • 475

    The Code of Euric

    The Code of Euric was a very important code of the Visigoths promulgated by the king Euric. The code was based on the Roman law (mostly on Theodosian Code) and the code is only preserved in fragments. Euric also included in this code his own constitutions as well as the constitutions of his predecessors. It applied mostly to Visigoths.
  • Period: 477 to 711

    Early Middle Age

  • Breviary of Alaric
    506

    Breviary of Alaric

    It was inspired by the previous codifications of Roman law (Codex Theodosianus, Codex Gregorianus and Codex Hermogenianus) and it established rules applicable to the Roman population of the Visigoth kingdom (thus Lex Romana Visigothorum) whereas the Visigoths themselves used Code of Euric.
  • Codex Iustinianeus
    531

    Codex Iustinianeus

    Justinian's Code was the first promulgated part of the Corpus Iuris Civilis. This part is a compilation of the Roman law - imperial constitutions dating all the way back to Hadrian. The work is divided into 12 books and it covers public law (religion and state), private law, criminal law and administrative law.
  • Digesta seu Πανδέκται
    535

    Digesta seu Πανδέκται

    Digesta was another part of Corpus Iuris Civilis. It contained most important juristic writings (collection of jursiprudence). Digesta was divided into 50 books. The jurisprudence was mostly taken from the classical period (especially from the works of Ulpianus and Paulus). In Digesta we can also find the fragment talking about lex regia.
  • Institutiones seu Elementa
    535

    Institutiones seu Elementa

    Institutiones served as an official (and the only allowed) textbook. The book is largely based on the previous textbook on Roman law written by Gaius. It should have served as an introduction to the study of Digesta.
  • 539

    Novellae leges post codicem (Νεαραὶ διατάξεις μετὰ τὸν κώδικα)

    Novellae is a collection of new constitutions of Justinian. It is considered to be the fourth part of Corpus Iuris Civilis. They mostly deal with public law (administrative and canonic). In case of collision it had derogative effect on Digest and Codex (Lex posterior derogat legi priori).
  • 580

    Codex revisus

    Also known as Code of Leovigild. Codex revisus is a review of the Code of Euric. There are no known fragments of this code preserved. However, later codification Liber Iudiciorum takes parts of this code and labels them "antiquae."
  • Liber Iudiciorum
    654

    Liber Iudiciorum

    This code replaced both Euric's Code and Breviary of Alaric. It introduced the principle of territoriality - i.e. everyone was to follow this code rather than having specific codification for Visigoths and Romans. It was officially promulgated by king Recceswinth. Translation of this work can be found here: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/scott-visigothiccodeforum.pdf
  • Period: 712 to 1125

    Dark Ages and Renaissance

  • 726

    Ecloga (Ἐκλογή)

    Other than Corpus Iuris Civilis this is the most important legal work from the Byzantine Empire. It was written in Greek (not in Latin anymore) although it was still based on Roman law (despite already being strongly influenced by Christianity). It was promulgated during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Leo III.
  • 893

    Basilika

    Basilika was another simplification of Corpus Iuris Civilis. It was also written in Greek and they were promulgated by Leo VI the Wise. It contained 60 books and also new customs and new legislation.
  • Dictatus papae
    1075

    Dictatus papae

    This was an important document from the 11th century that was an attempt of the pope to legally establish his supremacy and right to depose emperors. It was a source of canon law as it states some rights of the pope. More can be read here: http://legalhistorysources.com/ChurchHistory220/TopicFive/DictatusPapaeReuter.htm
  • Irnerius
    1100

    Irnerius

    (1050-1125) One of the most important jurists of the Middle Ages from Bologna who worked on recomposition of Corpus Iuris Civilis and he also commented it in a form of gloss. He founded the law school of glossators. New branches of law can also be derived from this era such as international private law.