The Pandects were published on the /6th Decem ber, 533, but they did not go into operation until the 30th of that month. In confirming the Pan dects, Justinian prohibited farther reference to the old jurists; and, in order to prevent legal science from becoming again so diffuse, indefinite, end un certain as it had previously been, be forbade the writing of commentaries upon the new compila tion, end permitted only the making of literal translations into Greek.
5. In preparing the Pandcets, the oompilers suet very frequently with controversies in the writings of the jurists. Such questions, to the number of thirty-four, had been already determined by Justi nian before the commencement of the collection of the Paadects, and before its completion the deci sions of this kind were increased to fifty, and were known as the fifty decisions of Justinian. These decisions were at first collected separately, and afterwards embodied in the new oode.
6. For the purpose of facilitating the study of the law, Justinian ordered Tribonian, with the as sistance of Theophilus and Dorotheus, to prepare a brief system of law under the title of Institutes. which should contain the elements of legal science. This work was founded on, and to a great extent co pied from, the commentaries of Gains, which, after having been lost for many centuries, were dis covered by the great historian Niebuhr, in 1816, in a palimpsest, or re-written manuscript of some of the homilies of St. Jerome, iu the Chapter Li brary of Verona. What had become obsolete in the commentaries was omitted in the Institutes, and references were made to the new constitutions of Justinian so far as they had 'been issued at the time. Justinian published his Institutes qn the 21st November, 533, and they obtained the force of law at the same time with the Pandects, Decem ber 30, 533. Theophilus, one of the editors, deli vered lectures on the Institutes in the Greek lan guage, and from these lectures originated the valu able commentaries known under the Latin title, Theophili Antecetworis Paraphramis Greece Inctine tionum Cze8arcitruni. The Institutes consist of four books, etch of which contains several titles.
7. After the publication of the Pandects and the Institutes, Justinian ordered a revision of the Code, which had been promulgated in the year 529. This became necessary on account of the great number of new constitutions which he had issued, and of the fifty decisions not included in the Old Code, and by which the law bad been altered, amended, or modified. • He therefore directed Tribonian, with the assistance of Dorothcus, Menne, Constan tinus, and Johannes, to revise the Old Code and to incorporate the new constitutions into it. This revision was completed in the same year ; and the new edition of the Code, Codex repetitze przelectionis, was confirmed on the 16th November, 534, and the Old Code abolished. The Code contains twelve books, subdivided into appropriate titles.
8. During the interval between the publication of the Codex repetitx prwlectionis, in 535, to the end of his reign, in 565, Justinian issued, at differ ent times, a great number of new constitutions, by which the law on many subjects was entirely changed. The greater part of these constitutions
were written in Greek, in obscure and pompous language, and published under the name of No odles Constitutiouee, which are known to us os the Novels of Justinian. Soon after his death, a col lection of one hundred and sixty-eight Novels was made, ono hundred and fifty-four of which had been issued by Justinian, and the others by his successors.
Justinian's collections were, in ancient times, always copied separately, and afterwards they were printed in the same way. When taken to gether, they were indeed called, at an early period, the Corpus Janis Ovals ; but the was not intro duced as the regular title comprehending the whole body; each volume had its own title until Diony thus Gothefredus gave this general title in the se cond edition of his glossed Corpus Avis Civilis, in 1604. Since that time this title has been used in all the editions of Justinian's collections.
9. It is generally believed that the laws of Jus tinian were entirely lost and -forgotten in the Western Empire from the middle of the eighth century until the alleged discovery of a copy of the Pandects at the storming and pillage of Amalfi, in 1135. This is one of those popular errors which had been handed down froth generation to genera tion without question or inquiry, but which has now been completely exploded by the learned dis cussion, supported by conclusive evidence, of Sa vigny, in his History of the Roman Law during the Middle Ages. Indeed, several years before the sack of Amalfi the celebrated Irnerius delivered lectures on the Pandects in the University of bo logna. The pretended discovery of a copy of the Digest at Amalfi, and its being given by Lothaire 11. to his allies the Pisane as a reward for their services, is an absurd fable. No doubt, during the five or six centuries when the human intellect was in a complete state of torpor, the study of the Rt Law, like that of every other branch of knowledge, was neglected; but on the first dawn of the revival of learning the science of Roman jurisprudence was one of the first to attract the attention of man kind; and it was taught with such brilliant success as to immortalize the name of Irnerius, its great professor.
10. Even at the present time the Roman Law exercises dominion in every state in Europe ex cept England. The countrymen of Lycurgus and Solon arc governed by it, and in the vast empire of Russia it furnishes the rule of civil ci nduct. In America, it is the foundation of the law of Louisiana, Canada, Mexico, and all the republics of South America. Its influence in the formation of the common low of England cannot be denied by the impartial inquirer. It was publicly taught in England, by Roger Vacarius, as early as 1149; and all admit that the whole equity jurisprudence prevailing in England and the United States is mainly based on the civil low. See Cones; DI