PANDECTS (Lat. pamicela, from Gk. rap pandekff's, all-receiving, from vas, pas, + 6execreat, dechesthai, to receive). The leading compilation of the Roman law, made by the direction of the Emperor Justinian (q.v.). It is also sometimes known as the Digest. The celebrated Justinian Code had previously been compiled by his order, but it dealt with the more practical affairs of common occurrence, and the Pandeets were designed to supplement it with all the more subtle legal learning of the age.
In A.D. 530 Justinian, by an ordinance known as the Dc Conceptione Digestorum, commanded the eminent jurist Tribonianus to select some of the most learned lawyers and jurisconsults of the Empire to assist him in making a collection of decisions and opinions on all points of law. Tribonianus, who had previously had valuable experience in the preparation of the code, formed a commission consisting of himself and sixteen others for the purpose. The work was finished in the year 533, three years after it was commenced. The authorities which were com pressed, interpreted, and put in systematic form were said to have consisted of upward of 2000 treatises, and the Pandects contain upward of 9000 separate extracts or statements, selected according to subjects from these treatises and authorities.
The Pandects are divided into 50 books, each containing several titles, and each title several extracts from the authorities, due credit being given to the lawyer or authority from which each extract is derived. The usual form of citation is by the numbers of the book, title, and section or extract. The work is also divided into seven parts, which correspond respectively with the books, 1-4, 5-11, 12-19, 20-27, 28-35, 36-44, and 45-50. This latter division is seldom referred
to in citations.
The principal jurists from whose writings the extracts were taken were 39 in number, and are sometimes called the classical jurists, al though some eminent writers confine that name to five of that number, viz. Papinianus Paulus, tilpian, Gains, and Modestinus. The extracts from these authorities indeed constitute the bulk of the collection, those from Ulpian alone mak ing about one-third of the whole work, those from Paulus one-sixth, and those from Papinianus one-twelfth. Other writers besides these 39 are cited, but usually only indirectly, i.e. when cited by the jurists whose works constitute the basis of the collection. The Pandects were arranged according to the method of the code.
The work is deservedly one of the most fa mous collections of law the world has known. In its relations to the history and literature of Rome it is invaluable; and with its necessary complement, the Codex, it was the basis of all medieval legislation, and of the civil law of to day, besides exercising an influence on the law of England. The origin of many doctrines and terms in modern English and American law may be traced to the Pandeets, and the idea of codifi cation which prompted the work is being devel oped in all jurisdictions in general acts on vari ous subjects of the law. See JUSTINIAN ; CIVIL LAW ; eONIAION LAW ; JURISCONSULT.