254 HISTORY OF LAW 



tinian, who as ruler of the Eastern Empire, with his capital at Con- 

 Justinian's stantinople, but also with jurisdiction over the Western 

 Codifica- Empire, which was for the time being not subjeet to 

 on> his actual authority, between the years A. D. 529 and 



534 caused to be prepared his Code proper, similar in scope to that 

 of Theodosius, with, however, an attempt at methodical arrange- 

 ment, and also the Pandects or Digest, a compilation of the author- 

 itative expositions of the law, and in addition the Institutes, an 

 elementary work expounding the theory and principles of the law. 

 These works constitute together the final historical monument of 

 the Roman civil law as the judicial system of an existing govern- 

 ment. They were prepared by Tribonian and his associates under 

 the Imperial command, but they embodied the results of a develop- 

 ment of law by abler and more original minds. 



By the promulgation of the Pandects Justinian sought to con- 

 vert effectually that part of the law which did not already rest on 

 Codifica- the Imperial authority into written law, and to exclude 

 Develop- ^ e possibility of further reference to other authority, 

 ment. It was forbidden to supplement the official text with 



annotations or explanations, and there was theoretically no room 

 left for further development, save as the Imperial power should 

 be formally exercised in making additions or amendments. 



The theory that a system of law can thus finally be reduced to 

 authoritative formal statement of rules and principles which shall 

 Attempt to be applied to cases as they arise in judicial tribunals, 

 fTcation without other assistance than that furnished by the 

 Final. interpretation of the text taken as a whole, has been 



a favorite one wherever the civil law system has been adopted. In 

 the present German Code it is expressly provided that "the opinions 

 of law professors and the views taken by prior judges shall not be in 

 any way considered in future decisions"; and in the Code Napoleon 

 the judges are prohibited from pronouncing general views of law 

 in the cases which are submitted to them; while in Austria the con- 

 sideration of general principles is expressly excluded by a pro- 

 vision prohibiting the application of the customary law. In fact, 

 by the civil law theory of codification, the further development of 

 the law is taken out of the hands of jurists and placed entirely within 

 the domain of political science. It is needless to say to any one 

 familiar with the actual truths of modern law that such a theory 

 cannot be worked out; for judges, even in countries where there is 

 a final and complete codification, must inevitably take notice of the 

 prior decisions of the courts in analogous cases and seek enlighten- 

 ment for the interpretation of the law in the writings of those learned 

 men who have attempted to expound the principles and to illustrate 

 them by reference to cases real or hypothetical. The fundamental 



