a Ed. by Rudorff, Zschr. f. gesch. R. W.' 301. Ed. and ex plained by Mommsen, 'De mentary; preserved upon two tablets found at Rome in 1820 and 1830.a STATUTES and DECREES OF CORPORATIONS AND SOCIETIES. (a) Lex collegii funeraticii Lanuvini (133 A.D.) of a burial society." (3) Notice of the dissolution of a coll. fun. AbburCollegiis,' p. 98 nense, on the part of the magister collegii (167 A.D.); in the wax-tablets of Transylvania.' (1843). Explained by Huschke, R. W.'xii. 173. (y) Statute of a coll. aquae.d (8) Lex metalli Vipascensis, found in Lusitania in the year 1876: an imperial ordinance as to mining. The part preserved treats of the leasing of all possible fullers. Ed. by industries to be pursued at the place, and for which a monopoly is thereby given. Roman guild of Rudorff, ibid. XV. 203. Hübner; 'Ephem. epi- fasc. 3. DOCUMENTS relating to LAWSUITS. (a) Sententia Minuciorum (commissaries of the Roman senate) in frontier-disputes of the town of Genua and of the community of Veturii belonging to Explained by it (637 U.c.). It was discovered in 1506.ƒ Rudorff, Zschr. f. R. G.' i. 168. (3) An award in respect of frontier-disputes of the Ed. by Momm- city Histonium." sen, Stadt rechte,' p. 484. (y) Lis fullonum (A.D. 244), found at Rome in 1701, contains a documentary report upon a protracted suit (from 226 to 244) against the Roman fullers' association with regard to the water-rate to be paid According to by them to the Treasury. others, the rate to be paid by the Fiscus to them. It has been edited by Rudorff, 'Zschr. f. gesch. R. W.' XV. 254; Momms., ibid. p. 326; Bremer, § 9. FROM CONSTANTINE TO JUSTINIAN. The fourth period, which closes with Justinian's legislation, marks the decline of pure Roman Law as a science, and likewise is the time when that Law obtains Rhein. Muse a cosmopolitan character. The new organization of the State, characterised by centralisation and absolutism, the basis of which was laid by Diocletian and which was completed by Constantine, with its central um' for 1866, p. 10. point transferred to the eastern half of the empire (Constantinople), the introduction of the Christian as the state-religion, the general decline of culture and the dying out of legal productivity, as well as the extinction of Roman nationality,-these together determined also the development of Law. The main task of this we may see in the removal of the obsolete national elements of the Roman Private Law, and accordingly, its extension into a Universal Law, containing the more general legal conceptions of the 'ius gentium'" which rendered possible and provided the first step in the transition of the Roman Law to modern times. a b C.,e.g., §§ 39. 166, 170, 181. 74, 89., 81, 150, quam interpres The development of Law now depended upon imperial legislation, and that chiefly in the form of Tam conditor edicta (leges generales). By Arcadius and Honorius legum solus (A.D. 398) the application of 'rescripta' and 'decreta' imperator.' beyond the special case was forbidden; nevertheless, according to a provision of Theodosius and Valentinian (426), they were to be of general legal obligation if the Emperor himself had assigned legal effect to them by a special clause, or by the designation of generalis lex s. 'edictum.' By Justinian, on the other hand, the 'decreta' were again declared to be of general obligation. The decreta' subscribed by the Emperor took the form either of a communication to the Senate or of a proclamation to his subjects, which as a rule was despatched to a high imperial officer, and was by him then copied and issued by advertisement or otherwise. These were the 'sanctiones pragmaticae.' After the division of the empire the transmission to one part of the laws promulgated in the other was effected by means of publication in that part. Moreover, the later legislation concerned for the most part only the administration; in general, the Criminal Law and Law of Procedure; it was but to a slight extent operative in the department of Private Law, because it did not so much actually develop the Law as simply set aside what was antiquated; and not merely in this, but in a Cf. § 8. the inexactness, obscurity and prolixity, and in the Byzantine bombast of those laws, is plainly reflected the juristic incapacity and ignorance of this period. In the general substance of the Law a distinction was now made, from the point of view of practical application, between two bodies of Law: ius (vetus), i.e., the classical juristic literature-including the imperial constitutions contained in private collections -and leges (novae), the laws published since the time of Constantine. As regards the first, thorough study and full practical appreciation of them failed from lack of a scientific frame of mind and juristic aptitude. And further, Practice always increasingly confined itself to some widely spread works of a few especially esteemed jurists. To this relates the so-called 'Law of Citation,' of Valentinian III. (426), which on the one hand was meant to introduce a more liberal use of the whole classical literature of Law, that in practice had mostly fallen into disuse, inasmuch as it at the same time emphasized the limitation of legal authority to the 'Iuris auctores and the Veteres ;'a whilst, on the other hand, it endeavoured to aid practice so as to settle controversies arising therein, by regulating the external authority of the writings of jurists, as well as by the introduction, suited to the spirit of the times, of the principle of a mechanical balancing of opinions. Impp. Theodos. et Valentin. AA. ad Senatum urbis Romae.-Papiniani, Pauli, Gaii, Ulpiani atque Modestini scripta universa firmamus ita, ut Gaium quae Paulum, Ulpianum et cunctos comitetur auctoritas, lectionesque ex omni eius opere recitentur. Eorumque quoque scientiam, quorum tractatus atque sententias praedicti omnes eius operibus miscuerunt, ratam esse censemus (ut Scaevolae, Sabini, Iuliani atque Marcelli omniumque quos illi celebrarunt): si tamen eorum libri propter antiquitatis incertum codicum collatione firmentur. Ubi autem diversae senten- Legal instruction was now given at public schools of Law by appointed teachers (professores) and according to a fixed plan of teaching." In the first year Const. Omnem reip. § I. were taken up 'Gaii institutiones' and four 'libri singu a 1 Their imperial majesties Theodosius and Valentinian to the Senate of the City of Rome.-We confirm the whole of the writings of Papinian, Paulus, Gaius, Ulpian and Modestinus, so that the same authority shall attach to Gaius as does to Paulus, Ulpian and all, and let appeal be made to passages from every work of his. The learning also of those whose treatises and opinions the aforesaid persons in general have incorporated with their own works we consider should be upheld (as of Scaevola, Sabinus, Julian and Marcellus, and of all whom they have commemorated): if, however, doubt surround their books by reason of age, let them be confirmed by comparison of copies. But where diverse opinions are expressed, the greater number of authors shall decide, or if the number be equal, the authority of that side shall prevail in which figures Papinian, a man of superior understanding, who while he is worth more than one gives way to two. And, as long since was prescribed by Constantine, we ordain that the notes of Paulus when the voice and Ulpian which have been made upon the whole of Papinian of Papinian is are of no authority. But where the opinions of those whose not available. d. A general authority is accounted equal are equally balanced, let the modeoverriding auration of the judge select that which he ought to follow. We thority being also direct that the Sentences of Paulus are of permanent given to the authority.d b See Moyle, pp. 59, 60. e I.e., in cases sententiae of P.' Clark, p. 297. a Cf. § 10. Ed. by Haenel; the Cod. Theodos., with lares' from his commentary on the Edict; in the second year, selections from sectt. 1-3 of the Edict, according to a commentary thereon (perhaps Ulpian's); in the third year, the portions gone over in the previous year of the second and third section of the Edict, and eight books of Papinian's Responsa;' in the fourth year, private study of the 'Responsa' of Paulus; and in the fifth year, private study of the Constitutions. Collections of Law. Through the requirements of practice, collections were called for of the imperial constitutions, which were scattered, with difficulty accessible, and in great part not published officially. There were two private collections: Gregorianus Codex' (c. 300 A.D.) and 'Hermogenianus Codex' (about the middle or towards the end of the fourth century), of both of which only a few fragments are preserved in the 'lex Romana Visigothorum' and in other compilations. The Codex Theodosianus' was an official codification of the imperial constitutions since Constantine the Great, arranged by Theodosius II. and Valentinian III. The order was given for it in A.D. 429, then it was suspended, but recommenced in 435, and completed and published, together with a confirmation of the cod. Greg. and Herm., in 438. The constitutions codified by it underwent much editorial alteration. This collection consists of sixteen books, divided by titles, in which the separate constitutions are arranged chronologically. Books 6-16 are preserved in their original form, but Books 1-5 only in the extracts contained in the lex Rom. Visig.-With this go the collections of constitutions issued later on (novellae leges), of Theodosius II. and his successors. As with the decay of jurisprudence the classical copious commy. literature of Law could no longer be mastered in its full extent, the need of selections and compilations of by Gothofred. |