Novellae Constitutiones
one of the four components of the “Corpus juris civilis” drafted under the Byzantine emperor Justinian
The Novellae Constitutiones ("new constitutions"; Ancient Greek: Νεαραὶ διατάξεις, romanized: Nearaì diatáxeis), or Justinian's Novels, are now considered one of the four major units of Roman law initiated by Roman emperor Justinian I in the course of his long reign (AD 527–565). The other three pieces are: the Codex Justinianus, the Digest, and the Institutes. Justinian's quaestor Tribonian was primarily responsible for compiling the latter three. Together, the four parts are known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. Whereas the Code, Digest, and Institutes were designed by Justinian as coherent works, the Novels are a diverse body of laws enacted after 534 (when he promulgated the second edition of the Code) that were never officially compiled during his reign.
History
Justinian’s first Code, issued in 529, compiled and harmonized the imperial enactments (constitutiones, or constitutions) of previous emperors. After the Code was promulgated, only it, and not the prior imperial legislation, could be cited as law. However, in 530 and 531, Justinian issued the quinquaginta decisiones (fifty decisions) that resolved differences among the writings of classical jurists, and he continued to issue other new laws as well. This meant the Code could no longer be the sole, unified source of imperial legislation. Hence, in 534 Justinian issued the Constitutio cordi nobis, creating a second edition of the Code (Codex repetitae praelectionis).
“Novellae Constitutiones” enters the record as one of the four components of the “Corpus juris civilis” drafted under the Byzantine emperor Justinian. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Novellae, Constitutiones and four can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Novellae Constitutiones” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.