NOVELS, NOVELLJE CONSTITUTIONES. In Civil Law. The name given to the consti tutions or laws of Justinian and his diate successors, which were promulgated soon after the Code of Justinian.
It appears to have been the intention of Justin ian, after the completion of the second and revised edition of the Code, to supply what had not been foreseen in the preceding caws, together 'with any necessary amendments or alterations, not by revis ing the Code, but by supplementary laws. Such laws he promulgated from time to time; but no official compilation of them is known to haye been made until after his death, when his laws, 159 in number, with those of the reigns of Justin II. and Tiberias, nine in number, were collected, together with some local edicts, under this name. They be long to various times between 535 and 565.
Although the Novels of Justinian are the best known, and when the word Novels only is men tioned those of Justinian are always Intended, he was not the first who used that name. Some of the acts of Theodosius, Valentinian, Leo, Severus, ,A.uthennius, and others, were' also called Novels.
But the Novels of the emperors who preceded Jus tinian had not the force of law after the legislation of that emperor. Those Novels are not, however, entirely useless: because, the Code of Justinian having been compiled to a considerable extent from the Thcodosian Dude and the earlier Novels, the latter frequently remove doubts which arise. on the construction of the Code.
The original language of the Novels was for the most part Greek: but they are represented in the Corpus Juris Civais by a Latin translation of 134 of them. These forma the fourth part of the Corpus Juris Civilis. They are directed either to some officer, or an archbishop or bishop, or to some pri vate individual of Constantinople ; but they all had the force and authority .of law.
The 118th Novel is the foundation and ground work of the English Statute of Distribution of In testates' Effects, which has been copied In many states of the Union. See 1 P. Wins. 27; Free. in Chanc. 593; Cry= Law.; CODE.