The Institutes of Justinian

About this book

In 533 the Byzantine emperor Justinian issued this short textbook of Roman law for first-year law students in Constantinople and Beirut. In four books it sets out the whole system: the law of persons, free and slave, citizens and foreigners, marriage, adoption and guardianship; the law of things, property, possession, gifts, wills and inheritance; obligations, contracts and wrongs such as theft and injury; and legal actions. It opens with famous definitions: justice is the constant will to give every man his due, and the precepts of law are to live honestly, to harm no one and to give each his own.

Context and significance

The Institutes formed part of the great code later called the Corpus Juris Civilis, prepared by a commission under the jurist Tribonian, and when it was rediscovered in medieval Bologna it became the foundation of the civil law of Europe and of many legal systems beyond. This translation is by J. B. Moyle of Oxford. A very different view of Justinian is in Procopius's Secret History.

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