Doctorate Jurist

Doctorate Jurist

Doctorate Jurist

Posted on: December 02, 2011 - 2:10 pm
by Admin

Roman systems of law survived in a fragmented form through the Early Middle Ages, being maintained quite loosely by some Germanic kingdoms, and returning to prominence towards the end of the first millennium with an increase in the complexity of trade and commercialism, which necessitated the old Roman standards of contract law.

Corpus Iuris Civilis

It was in the late 11th century, however, that, corresponding to a rise in legal interest and capability, the Digest was rediscovered in Western Europe. The Digest was the most complex part of the Corpus Iuris Civilis, a codification of Roman law made during the reign of Justinian I. The Corpus, thanks to its scope and depth, serves as a manifestation of all that is Roman law. Although it had seemingly been distributed around Mediterranean Europe in the mid-5th century, the Corpus had never been studied in great detail by European students of law. The single copy of the Digest, which allowed the aforementioned rediscovery, remained hidden away in an archive in Pisa throughout the early medieval period.

Through the 12th century, a picture of the entire Corpus Iuris Civilis was reconstructed in Europe. The recently found Digest added to the Institutes, the first nine of the twelve books of the Code, and the Novels - the other parts of the Corpus which had survived in Italy thanks to Byzantine contacts in the south. Prior to this, the quality of those segments of the Corpus which had survived were quite limited.