The imperial majesty should be armed with laws as well as glorified with arms, that there may be good government in times both of war and of peace, and the ruler of Rome may not only be victorious over his enemies, but may show himself as scrupulously regardful of justice as triumphant over his conquered foes.
With deepest application and forethought, and by the blessing of God, we have attained both of these objects. The barbarian nations which we have subjugated know our valour, Africa and other provinces without number being once more, after so long an interval, reduced beneath the sway of Rome by victories granted by Heaven, and themselves bearing witness to our dominion. All peoples too are ruled by laws which we have either enacted or arranged. Having removed every inconsistency from the sacred constitutions, hitherto inharmonious and confused, we extended our care to the immense volumes of the older jurisprudence; and, like sailors crossing the mid-ocean, by the favour of Heaven have now completed a work of which we once despaired. When this, with God's blessing, had been done, we called together that distinguished man Tribonian, master and exquaestor of our sacred palace, and the illustrious Theophilus and Dorotheus, professors of law, of whose ability, legal knowledge, and trusty observance of our orders we have received many and genuine proofs, and especially commissioned them to compose by our authority and advice a book of Institutes, whereby you may be enabled to learn your first lessons in law no longer from ancient fables, but to grasp them by the brilliant light of imperial learning, and that your ears and minds may receive nothing useless or incorrect, but only what holds good in actual fact. And thus whereas in past time even the foremost of you were unable to read the imperial constitutions until after four years, you, who have been so honoured and fortunate as to receive both the beginning and the end of your legal teaching from the mouth of the Emperor, can now enter on the study of them without delay. After the completion therefore of the fifty books of the Digest or Pandects, in which all the earlier law has been collected by the aid of the said distinguished Tribonian and other illustrious and most able men, we directed the division of these same Institutes into four books, comprising the first elements of the whole science of law. In these the law previously obtaining has been briefly stated, as well as that which after becoming disused has been again brought to light by our imperial aid. Compiled from all the Institutes of our ancient jurists, and in particular from the commentaries of our Gaius on both the Institutes and the common cases, and from many other legal works, these Institutes were submitted to us by the three learned men aforesaid, and after reading and examining them we have given them the fullest force of our constitutions.
Receive then these laws with your best powers and with the eagerness of study, and show yourselves so learned as to be encouraged to hope that when you have compassed the whole field of law you may have ability to govern such portion of the state as may be entrusted to you.
Given at Constantinople the 21st day of November, in the third consulate of the Emperor Justinian, Father of his Country, ever august.
Contents
| [ BOOK I. ] | |
| [ TITLE I. ] | OF JUSTICE AND LAW |
| [ TITLE II. ] | OF THE LAW OF NATURE, THE LAW OF NATIONS |
| [ TITLE III. ] | OF THE LAW OF PERSONS |
| [ TITLE IV. ] | OF MEN FREE BORN |
| [ TITLE V. ] | OF FREEDMEN |
| [ TITLE VI. ] | OF PERSONS UNABLE TO MANUMIT, AND THE CAUSES |
| [ TITLE VII. ] | OF THE REPEAL OF THE LEX FUFIA CANINIA |
| [ TITLE VIII. ] | OF PERSONS INDEPENDENT OR DEPENDENT |
| [ TITLE IX. ] | OF PATERNAL POWER |
| [ TITLE X. ] | OF MARRIAGE |
| [ TITLE XI. ] | OF ADOPTIONS |
| [ TITLE XII. ] | OF THE MODES IN WHICH PATERNAL POWER IS EXTINGUISHED |
| [ TITLE XIII. ] | OF GUARDIANSHIPS |
| [ TITLE XIV. ] | WHO CAN BE APPOINTED GUARDIANS BY WILL |
| [ TITLE XV. ] | OF THE STATUTORY GUARDIANSHIP OF AGNATES |
| [ TITLE XVI. ] | OF LOSS OF STATUS |
| [ TITLE XVII. ] | OF THE STATUTORY GUARDIANSHIP OF PATRONS |
| [ TITLE XVIII. ] | OF THE STATUTORY GUARDIANSHIP OF PARENTS |
| [ TITLE XIX. ] | OF FIDUCIARY GUARDIANSHIP |
| [ TITLE XX. ] | OF ATILIAN GUARDIANS, AND THOSE APPOINTED UNDER THE LEX IULIA |
| [ TITLE XXI. ] | OF THE AUTHORITY OF GUARDIANS |
| [ TITLE XXII. ] | OF THE MODES IN WHICH GUARDIANSHIP IS TERMINATED |
| [ TITLE XXIII. ] | OF CURATORS |
| [ TITLE XXIV. ] | OF THE SECURITY TO BE GIVEN BY GUARDIANS AND CURATORS |
| [ TITLE XXV. ] | OF GUARDIANS' AND CURATORS' GROUNDS OF EXEMPTION |
| [ TITLE XXVI. ] | OF GUARDIANS OR CURATORS WHO ARE SUSPECTED |
| [ BOOK II. ] | |
| [ TITLE I. ] | OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF THINGS |
| [ TITLE II. ] | OF INCORPOREAL THINGS |
| [ TITLE III. ] | OF SERVITUDES |
| [ TITLE IV. ] | OF USUFRUCT |
| [ TITLE V. ] | OF USE AND HABITATION |
| [ TITLE VI. ] | OF USUCAPION AND LONG POSSESSION |
| [ TITLE VII. ] | OF GIFTS |
| [ TITLE VIII. ] | OF PERSONS WHO MAY, AND WHO MAY NOT ALIENATE |
| [ TITLE IX. ] | OF PERSONS THROUGH WHOM WE ACQUIRE |
| [ TITLE X. ] | OF THE EXECUTION OF WILLS |
| [ TITLE XI. ] | OF SOLDIERS' WILLS |
| [ TITLE XII. ] | OF PERSONS INCAPABLE OF MAKING WILLS |
| [ TITLE XIII. ] | OF THE DISINHERISON OF CHILDREN |
| [ TITLE XIV. ] | OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE HEIR |
| [ TITLE XV. ] | OF ORDINARY SUBSTITUTION |
| [ TITLE XVI. ] | OF PUPILLARY SUBSTITUTION |
| [ TITLE XVII. ] | OF THE MODES IN WHICH WILLS BECOME VOID |
| [ TITLE XVIII. ] | OF AN UNDUTEOUS WILL |
| [ TITLE XIX. ] | OF THE KINDS AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HEIRS |
| [ TITLE XX. ] | OF LEGACIES |
| [ TITLE XXI. ] | OF THE ADEMPTION AND TRANSFERENCE OF LEGACIES |
| [ TITLE XXII. ] | OF THE LEX FALCIDIA |
| [ TITLE XXIII. ] | OF TRUST INHERITANCES |
| [ TITLE XXIV. ] | OF TRUST BEQUESTS OF SINGLE THINGS |
| [ TITLE XXV. ] | OF CODICILS |
| [ BOOK III. ] | |
| [ TITLE I. ] | OF THE DEVOLUTION OF INHERITANCES ON INTESTACY |
| [ TITLE II. ] | OF THE STATUTORY SUCCESSION OF AGNATES |
| [ TITLE III. ] | OF THE SENATUSCONSULTUM TERTULLIANUM |
| [ TITLE IV. ] | OF THE SENATUSCONSULTUM ORFITIANUM |
| [ TITLE V. ] | OF THE SUCCESSION OF COGNATES |
| [ TITLE VI. ] | OF THE DEGREES OF COGNATION |
| [ TITLE VII. ] | OF THE SUCCESSION TO FREEDMEN |
| [ TITLE VIII. ] | OF THE ASSIGNMENT OF FREEDMEN |
| [ TITLE IX. ] | OF POSSESSION OF GOODS |
| [ TITLE X. ] | OF ACQUISITION BY ADROGATION |
| [ TITLE XI. ] | OF THE ADJUDICATION OF A DECEASED PERSON'S ESTATE |
| [ TITLE XII. ] | OF UNIVERSAL SUCCESSIONS, NOW OBSOLETE |
| [ TITLE XIII. ] | OF OBLIGATIONS |
| [ TITLE XIV. ] | OF REAL CONTRACTS |
| [ TITLE XV. ] | OF VERBAL OBLIGATION |
| [ TITLE XVI. ] | OF STIPULATIONS IN WHICH THERE ARE TWO CREDITORS OR TWO |
| [ TITLE XVII. ] | OF STIPULATIONS MADE BY SLAVES |
| [ TITLE XVIII. ] | OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF STIPULATIONS |
| [ TITLE XIX. ] | OF INVALID STIPULATIONS |
| [ TITLE XX. ] | OF FIDEJUSSORS OR SURETIES |
| [ TITLE XXI. ] | OF LITERAL OBLIGATION |
| [ TITLE XXII. ] | OF OBLIGATION BY CONSENT |
| [ TITLE XXIII. ] | OF PURCHASE AND SALE |
| [ TITLE XXIV. ] | OF LETTING AND HIRING |
| [ TITLE XXV. ] | OF PARTNERSHIP |
| [ TITLE XXVI. ] | OF AGENCY |
| [ TITLE XXVII. ] | OF QUASI-CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATION |
| [ TITLE XXVIII. ] | OF PERSONS THROUGH WHOM WE CAN ACQUIRE OBLIGATIONS |
| [ TITLE XXIX. ] | OF THE MODES IN WHICH OBLIGATIONS ARE DISCHARGED |
| [ BOOK IV. ] | |
| [ TITLE I. ] | OF OBLIGATIONS ARISING FROM DELICT |
| [ TITLE II. ] | OF ROBBERY |
| [ TITLE III. ] | OF THE LEX AQUILIA |
| [ TITLE IV. ] | OF INJURIES |
| [ TITLE V. ] | OF QUASI-DELICTAL OBLIGATIONS |
| [ TITLE VI. ] | OF ACTIONS |
| [ TITLE VII. ] | OF CONTRACTS MADE WITH PERSONS IN POWER |
| [ TITLE VIII. ] | OF NOXAL ACTIONS |
| [ TITLE IX. ] | OF PAUPERIES, OR DAMAGE DONE BY QUADRUPEDS |
| [ TITLE X. ] | OF PERSONS THROUGH WHOM WE CAN BRING AN ACTION |
| [ TITLE XI. ] | OF SECURITY |
| [ TITLE XII. ] | OF ACTIONS PERPETUAL AND TEMPORAL, AND WHICH MAY BE BROUGHT |
| [ TITLE XIII. ] | OF EXCEPTIONS |
| [ TITLE XIV. ] | OF REPLICATIONS |
| [ TITLE XV. ] | OF INTERDICTS |
| [ TITLE XVI. ] | OF THE PENALTIES FOR RECKLESS LITIGATION |
| [ TITLE XVII. ] | OF THE DUTIES OF A JUDGE |
| [ TITLE XVIII. ] | OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |