JUDICIAL SYSTEM - ADVANCED CULTURE {JJN (pg 65)Tribonian was appointed Quaestor in 529, the highest law officer in the government. He was pagan. He was highly educated and Justinian used him to bring a long-cherished dream to fruition - a complete recodification of the Roman law, removing all repetitions and contradictions, ensuring that there was nothing incompatible with Christian teaching, substituting clarity and concision for confusion and chaos. on 8/4/529 (less than 14 months after work began) the new Codex was ready and a week later it came into force, the supreme authority for every court in the Empire. In 530 a 2nd commission under Tribonian began collecting the writings of all the ancient Roman jurists. Known as the Digest or Pandects it was 1st attempt to bring them into the framework of a methodical system. In AD 533 Institutes appeared - a handbook of extracts from the 2 main books designed for use in the imperial law schools.} / {BH (pg 234-238) Justinian Codex - innocent until proven guilty - still used today. By announcing he was going to collect, unify, sort and codify all edicts, laws, letters and legal cases that made up Roman legal practices over the previous 4 centuries Justinian announced himself as a just ruler and a ruler in control. What was being worked towards was a rubric with social justice squarely at its heart. Opening 3 lines define life under law as living honestly, hurting no-one and giving each their due. It was remarkably progressive, both socially and intellectually. New Law Code was to be produced in the name of Jesus Christ and was promoted as the best and most pious way to keep his flock safe. -it was used as robust opportunity to bond church and state. Justinian's laws were physically put on display in churches and read out within them. He codified the symbolic act of taking a Christian oath on a Bible before legal business could be transacted. Justinians Code both reforming and unreformed. It denied pagans, homosexuals, heretics and Jews the right to imperial office or inheritance. Constantiniople was cosmopolitan city. Now any on its streets who were, at a stroke, barred from justice under the laws and would struggle for centuries against their rebranding as the city's underdogs.} / {JH (pg 70- ) Application of written law was fundamental to Byzantine through its history. Ordinary citizens used the courts to secure a binding legal solution to their inheritance, property and family quarrels. Byzantine law developed from Roman legal system. T II established state funded law school in AD 425. He recognised it was difficult to use laws that conflicted and degrees that encouraged different interpretations so in AD 429 ordered experts to compile a law book for Roman Empire, editing and reforming all impereial laws issued since Constantine I in a single volume. Codes Theodosianus put into force 1/1/438. Justinian eventually ended
hadup with The Codes of Civil Law of AD 534 had 4 parts - old constitutions in revised edition in 12 books called Codex Justinians; the Digest; the Institutes and the new laws. The 12 books gave prominence to issues of Christian faith and decisions affecting ecclesiastical, social and economic issues of the 6th century. Some of Justinians later Novels extended Christian morality - insisting on need to protect women dedicated to virginity and to prevent recruitment of young prostitutes. Civil and ecclesiastical law gradually harmonised in a dual system of legal administration