Justinian Code
lit. “Corpus Juris Civilis — 'body of civil law'”
The 529–534 CE compilation of Roman law commissioned by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I — the channel through which Roman law reached medieval Europe and the basis of every modern civil-law system.
Origin
By Justinian's reign a thousand years of Roman legislation had piled up into a contradictory mess. He ordered a team of jurists led by Tribonian to boil it down. The result, the Corpus Juris Civilis ('Body of Civil Law'), has four parts: the Code (imperial statutes), the Digest (a synthesis of jurists' commentaries), the Institutes (a student textbook still readable today), and the Novels (Justinian's own new laws). Forgotten in Western Europe for centuries, the Digest was rediscovered at Bologna in the 11th century and became the founding text of medieval legal study. Every modern civil-law system — France, Germany, Latin America, much of Asia — descends from it. Common-law systems (England, the US) borrowed less directly but were still shaped by Roman categories.
Modern usage
Less of a household name than Magna Carta but routinely invoked in any history of law: the bridge between the Romans and Napoleon. The Latin name Corpus Juris Civilis still appears on lawyers' bookshelves, often unread. Justinian himself is better remembered for the Hagia Sophia and his formidable wife Theodora.
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