What empire did Justinian base his law code on?

Answer 1

Justinian I (or the Great) was an emperor of the Roman Empire. This empire from the late 5th century onward is usually called Byzantine Empire. This is a term which has been coined by historians who use it to indicate the eastern part of the Roman Empire after the fall of the western part. However, the so-called "Byzantines" did not use this term. They said Roman Empire, or Romania (which did not refer to the modern day country).

Justinian I commissioned the Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law), which was also dubbed the Justinian Code in the 16th century. A first edition was published in 529 and a second one in 534. It was the largest compendium of Roman civil law and came in four parts:

1) The Codex (book) or Codex Justinianus, which was a review of imperial laws going back 400 years (to the time of Hadrian). It scrapped obsolete or unnecessary laws, made changes when necessary and clarified obscure passages. Its aim was to put the laws in a single book (previously they were written on many different scrolls), harmonise conflicting views among jurists which arose from centuries of poorly organised development of Roman law and have a coherent body of law. . It also scrapped obsolete or unnecessary laws, made changes when necessary, clarified obscure passages. It consisted of 12 books, 1 book covers ecclesiastical law, the duties of high officers and sources of law, 7 cover private law, 1 criminal law and 3 administrative laws.

2) The Digesta which was a collection of fragments taken from essays on laws written by jurists (mostly from the 2nd and 3rd centuries) and which expressed the private opinions of legal experts. Most were from Ulpian (40%) and Paulus (17%). It was a large amount of writing which was condensed in 50 books. It was used as an advanced law student textbook.

3) The Institutiones was a textbook for first year law students written by two professors. It was a series of extracts from statements on the basic institutions of Roman law from the teaching books by 'writers of authority.' In was largely based on the texts of Gaius, a jurist of the 2nd century AD.

4) The Novellae Constitutiones, which contained laws recently issued by Justinian.