

JU9TH !AUV COURT. 



.irsTIXIAN-S CODE. 



fff ; wc WM 

 to r Bnr If cot-roe, Cot, 1 . 

 iwtlo* in IMS* wurJs " inst 



; which WH noticed by Lord Chanoennr EUesmsn 



upon his being 



..... 



chief justice, as the king called 



The High Court of Justiciary 

 court in Scotland. It consists of the lord 

 a. lord justice cUrk. and Arc other judges of UM Court of 

 and sits at Edinburgh, from time to time during UM year, 

 t to the extant of buauMM to be transacted. Offences com- 

 within UM district of the Lothians are 

 triad bsJm sh.c*n\ and m cases where in other parts of the country 

 I lor UM next Circuit Court would creel* too much delay, or 



where there b any otiMf ground of expediency, UM trial may proceed 

 before the Central Court. Other triaU In UM province, proceed before 



courts. which are held in spring and autumn, each by two 

 Ji%*s. or aa they are tanned Lord* CommMoMn of Justiciary. 

 The eouthern circuH it held at Jedburgfa, Ayr, and Dumfries; the 

 weetarn. at Glasgow, Inverary, and Stirling; and the northern at 

 Perth. Aberdeen, and Inverness. An additional circuit U held at 

 fllsayiw in wtetar. Queetioo* may be erriiifrd from the circuit courts 

 to UM High Court of Juetieiary, that u to say. before being decided 

 UM matter may be referred for the consideration of that court. But it 

 a peculiarity both of the central and circuit oourU of Justiciary, that 

 no decuion ooce given can be reconsidered either by the court \>r<>- 

 mimrtw it or a Court of Review. Thii principle is liable to many 

 objection*; and i* productive of but one benefit, that no trial u 

 thrown away by the subsequent discovery of flaws in initial procedure. 

 Helm the oaee goee to a jury, a judgment u pronounced " finding the 

 ImJrrt^mr* relevant," and virtually declaring the initial procedure 

 regular; that the charge U properly laid, and the offence if proved 

 pasiiehabU. Any objection* to the regularity of the proceeding* must 

 Iteielni* be ataied before judgment, which when once pronounced i* 

 ftnaL All caw before the Court of Justiciary are tried by a jury of 

 jfleeii. a majority returning the verdict where they are not unanimous. 

 It baa jurisdiction iu all the more serious offences except high treason, 

 which can only be tried under a commission of Oyer and Tcnnim-r. in 

 which English judges would now probably be included. 



JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE. (Mi RDM.] 



JUSTIFICATION i* used in theology to signify the acceptance of a 

 sinner by Ood, and is frequently employed by the sacred writers a* 

 equivalent to the forgiveness of sin. Thus, St. Paul says, " Be it 

 known onto yon therefore, men and brethren, that through thii man 

 w preached unto you the forgiveness of sin*, and by him all that 

 believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be 

 justified by the law of Moses." < AcU, xiii. 38, 3.) The Protestants 

 Catholics differ respecting the signification that should be 

 to UM word justification. The former maintain that the 



Hebrew word JF1JMT and the Greek words tucauM> and 8i*oWii,.are 



I invariably employed in the Bible in a judicial sense ; that is, to 

 declare a person righteous notwithstanding the sins he has committed, 

 sod to deliver him from the punishment which his sins had deserved. 

 The Utter interpret the words in a physical sense ; and maintain that 

 to be justified is not to be reckoned righteous by Ood, but actually to 

 he sand* righteous by the infusion of a sanctifying principle. The 

 riirtmiiili. on the contrary, believe, that though sanctification U 

 consequence of justification, yet it is a distinct and separate 



"The iisnini or cans* of our justification is generally divided by 

 theologian, into the originating, the meritorious, and the instrumental, 

 CMS*, or the causa tfnau, the causa meriloria, and the cataa 



I. The Orijtnaliny eaxtt U the lore of Ood towards his fallen 

 realm s (Rom. iii. 24; Epb. ii. 8). 2. The Merit oriota came, is, 

 according to the llth article of the Chur.-h of England, and the opinion 

 of mea* Protestants, " the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 

 and not our own works or desert inn" (Rom. iii. 25; v. 18; Eph. i. 

 7; Col L 14); but the Roman Catholic church maintains that good 

 penances, sad UM Intercsssinn of saints also contribute to our 

 lUoo. >. Tb* /mlnimnlaJ auue it faith in the vicarious 

 i of Christ; since the merit of Christ's sacrifice does not produce 

 r pardon, nnlsss we believe in it* efficacy. 



The consequences of justification are said to be : 1. Peace with Ood 

 v 1 ) ; 2. Tranquillity of conscience ; 8. Adoption of the 

 staled into the family of Ood (Rom. viii. 14-17) ; 4. Spiritual 

 j from UM belief of our being adopted by Ood (' Rom.' xiv. 

 f> 6 The hop* of eternal life. 



riMAK8CODE,or LEGISLATION. Justinian, soon after 

 the throne, gave orders (Feb. A.D. 628) to a commission 

 of Joanne* and nine other persons, among whom were 

 Theophilns, to make a general compilation of the 

 netful law*, or " constitutions," which had been pro- 

 I by the emperor* his predecessors, beginning from Hadrian's 

 "i down to his own time. [ConsTrrtinoxi, ROM AX.] 

 had been made in the time of CvnstanUne by 

 to, Gregory and Hermogvnes, of which only fragment* 

 < complete on* was effected under Thcodosius II. 



(THIODOSUX CODE.] All these were now merged in the new code of 

 Justinian. Joannes and his nine associates completed their task in 

 fourteen months, and the new code, having received the ii 

 sanction, was published in April, A.D. 529. A few yean after, 

 nian, by the advice of Tribonian, ordered a revision of his code to be 

 made by Tribonian and four others. The commissioners suppressed 

 several laws, a* either useless or inconsistent with present usage, and 

 .i.l 1. 1 many constitutions which the emperor had been promulgating 

 in the mean time, as well as fifty decision* on intricate point* of juris- 

 prudence. The code thus revised was published in December 

 year 534, under the title of Codex Justiniancua repetitrc pnclectionia,' 

 and thenceforth had the force of law. 



The Code is divided into twelve books ; every book is subdivided 

 into titles, and each title into laws. Book i. treats of the Catholic 

 faith, defines its creed agreeably to the first four general councils, 

 f.'rliiil.ling public disputations on dogma* ; it then treats of the rights, 

 privileges, and discipline of bishops and other ecclesiastical persona ; 

 next of heretics, Samaritan*, Jews, apostates, Ac., against whom it con- 

 tains several pnuU enactments ; after which the book proceed* to speak 

 of the laws, and their different kind*, and lastly of the magistrates. 

 Book ii. treats of the forms to be observed in commencing a suit ; 

 then of restitution, compromises, sureties, and lastly of the oath of 

 calumny.* Book iii. treats of judicia and judices, and judicial proceed- 

 ing* generally; of holidays, of the various jurisdictions, of illegal 

 (inofficiosa) testaments and donations, of dowries and inheritances, of 

 the Lex Aquilia, of mixed actions, of actions for crimes committed by 

 laves, of gaming, of burying-pUces and funeral expenses. Book iv. 

 begins with the explanation of personal actions which are founded on 

 loin and other causes ; of obligations and actions, with their effect in 

 relation to heirs and other persons bound by them ; of testimony and 

 written evidence ; of things borrowed for use ; of contract by pledge, 

 and the personal action thereon ; of compensation, interest, deposit, 

 mandate, partnership, buying and selling, permutation, hiring, and 

 emphyteutic contracts. Book v. treats of betrothment, gifts in con- 

 templation of marriage, of marriages, women'* portions, and the action 

 that lies for the recovery of the dowry, of gifts between husband and 

 wife, of estates given in dowry, of alimony, of concubines, natural 

 children, and the process of legitimation. It next treats of tutorships 

 (tutela), of the administration by tutors, and of the alienation of 

 minors' estates. Book vi. treats of slaves, and freedmen, and the 

 rights of their patrons ; then it explains at Urge the Prtotorian pos- 

 session called " Bonorum possessio :" after which it expounds the 

 whole matter of testament*, as institutions and substitutions of heira, 

 preteritions and disinheritings, refusal* of inheritance, the opening of 

 wills, codicils, legacies, and fiduciary bequests, and lastly succession 

 to the property of intestates. Book vji. treats of manumissions ; after- 

 wards of matters relating to prescription, of judgments (sentential) and 

 appeals, of the cession of estate or goods, of the seizure of goods, of 

 the privileges of the exchequer, those of dowries, and the revocation 

 of alienations made to defraud creditors. Book viii. begins with inter- 

 dicts : it then treats of pledges and pawns, of stipulations, novations, 

 delegations, Ac. It treats next of the paternal power, of the emanci- 

 pation of children and their ingratitude; it then explains what in 

 meant by custom, or unwritten Uw ; it next speaks of gifts (donationes 

 mortis causa, Ac.) and their various kinds ; and lastly, of taking away 

 the penalty of celibacy. Book ix. treats of crimes, criminal judgments 

 and punishments. Book x. treats of the rights and prerogative of the 

 exchequer, of vacant goods, of treasurers, taxes levied upon the people, 

 and tolls ; of the decuriones and their office, of the freedom of citizens, 

 of domicilia, of public offices and exemption from them, and of the 

 various kinds of public offices and functions appertaining to them. 

 Book xi. treats of the rights common to the city of Home and muni- 

 cipal towns, the right of having corporate bodies and communities, and 

 the right of having public registers. Book xii. continues the same 

 subject, explaining the right of cities as to having offices civil and 

 military, and also as to having functionaries for the execution of judg- 

 ments and the orders of magistrates. 



In the year following the publication of the first edition of his Code, 

 Justinian undertook a much greater and more important work ; to 

 extract the spirit of jurisprudence from the decisions and conjectures, 

 the questions and disputations, of the Roman civilians. In the course 

 of centuries, under the republic and the empire, many thousand 

 volumes had accumulated, filled with the learned lucubrations of the 

 jurisconsults, but which no fortune could purchase, and no capacity 

 could digest. The jurisconsults ever since the time of Augustus 

 had been divided into opposite schools, and thus conflicting opinions 

 were often produced, which only served to puzzle those li.. 

 had to decide what was Uw. To put order into this chaos, was the 

 object of Justinian. In December, 580, he commissioned seventeen 

 lawyers, with Tribonian at their head, with full authority to exercise 

 their discretion as to the works of their predecessors, by making a 

 choice of those whom they considered as the best authorities. They 

 chose about forty out of Tribonian'a library, most of them juris- 

 consults who had lived during that period of the empire which has 

 been sometimes called the age of the Antonines, from Hadrian to the 



Many of tho lrmi here uiwd re trrau of Roman law, and a* inch do Dot 

 admit of translation by equivalent English terms. 



