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860

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bequests. There is a method of arrangement therefore so far as generally to bring things of the same kind together, but the compilation has no claims to being considered as a scientific arrange­ment of the matter of law. And indeed the com­pilers were evidently fettered in this respect by the Emperor's instructions, which required them to arrange (digerere) the whole body of the law com­prised in the Digest, according to the Code and the Edictum Perpetuum.

It has long been a matter of dispute whether the compilers of the Digest were guided by any, and if aii3r, by what principle in the arrangement of the several extracts under the respective Titles. This subject is examined in a very learned essay by Bluhme, entitled " Die Ordnung der Fragmente in den Pandektentiteln." (Zeitschrift, vol. iv.) The investigation is of course founded on the titles of the several works of the Jurists, which as already ob­served are given at the head of each extract: thus, ibr instance, in the beginning of the 3d book, the first seven extracts are headed as follows : " Ulpi-anus Libro sexagesimo quarto ad Edictum ;3' 4* Idem Libro primo Fideicommissorum ; " " Idem Libro quarto ad Babinum ;" " Idem Libro quinto ad Sabinum ;" *' Paulus Libro primo ad Sabinum ;" " Julianus Libro trigesimo tertio Digestorum ; " " Paulus Libro secundo ad Sabinum." These will serve as samples of the whole and will explain the following remarks from Bluhme, whose con­clusions are these : " The compilers separated all the writings from which extracts were to be made, into three parts, and formed themselves, into three committees. Each committee read through in order the books that had fallen to its lot, yet so that books which were closely related as to their con­tents, were extracted at the same time. The books were compared with the Code of Justinian, and what was selected for the new compilation, was placed under a Title taken either from the Code, the Edict, or in case of necessity from the work itself which was extracted. What came under the Eame title was compared ; repetitions were erased, contradictions were got rid of, and alterations were made, when the contents of the extracts seemed to require it. When the three committees had finished their labours, the present Digest was formed out of the three collections of extracts. In order to ac­complish this, they made that collection the founda­tion of each Title which contained the most numerous or at least the longest extracts. With these they compared the smaller collections, strik­ing out, as they had done before, repetitions and contradictions, making the necessary additions, and giving more exact definitions and general princi­ples. What remained over of the smaller collections without having had an appropriate place assigned to it, was placed after the first collection, and its place in the series after the first collection was generally determined by the number of extracts."

*'The Digest does not seem to have been sub­jected to any further revision."

Bluhme remarks that, although the Constitutions, Deo Auctore, Imperatoriam, Tanta, and Cordi, con­tain much information on the economy of the Digest and the mode of proceeding of the compilers, only the two following facts are distinctly stated: 1. That the extracts from the writings of the Jurists were arranged according to the titles of the Code and the Edict. 2. That the extracts were compared with the Code. Accordingly everything

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else must be proved from an examination of the work itself, and this is the object of Bluhme's laborious essay. He observes that if a person will examine the extracts in the titles De Verborum, Significatione and De Regulis Juris (50. tit. 16, 17) he will find a regular order observable in the titles of the juristical works from which the extracts are taken. Generally, the series of the books quoted shows that the original order of the works from which the extracts were to be made, has not been altered ; and the several works generally follow in both these titles in the same order. A similar re­mark applies to the title De Verborum Obliga-tionibus (Dig. 45. tit. 1), though there is a varia­tion in all the three titles as to the relative order of the three masses, which are presently to be mentioned. " In the remaining titles of the Di­gest," adds Bluhme, " at first sight it appears as if one could find no other distinction in the titles of the extracts than this, that one part of them has a certain kind of connection, and another part merely indicates a motley assemblage of books out of which the extracts have been made. But on a closer comparison not only are three masses clearly distinguishable, but this comparison leads to the certain conclusion, that all the writings which were used in the compilation of the Digest, may be re­ferred to three classes. The Commentaries on Sa-binus (Ad Sabinum), on the Edict (Ad Edictum), and Papinian's writings are at the head of these three classes. We ma}r accordingly denote these three masses respectively by the names Sabinian, the Edict, and Papinian. In each of these classes the several works from which extracts are made, always follow in regular order." This order is shown by a table which Bluhme has inserted in his essay.

This article, if read in connection with the arti­cles codex and institutiones, will give some general notion of the Legislation of Justinian, the objects of which cannot be expressed better than in the following words : —

" Justinian's plan embraced two principal works, one of which was to be a selection from the Jurists and the other from the Constitutions. The first, the Pandect, was very appropriately intended to contain the foundation of the law : it was the first work since the date of the Twelve Tables, which in itself and without supposing the existence of any other, might serve as a central point of the Avhole body of the law. It may be properly called a Code, and the first complete Code since the time of the Twelve Tables, though a large part of its contents is not Law, but consists of Dogmatic and the in-'vestigation of particular cases. Instead of the in­sufficient rules of Valentinian III., the excerpts in the Pandect are taken immediately from the writ­ings of the Jurists in great numbers, and arranged according to their matter. The Code also has a more comprehensive plan than the earlier codes, since it comprises both Rescripts and Edicts. These two works, the Pandect and the Code, ought pro­perly to be considered as the completion of Jus­tinian's design. The Institutions cannot be viewed as a third work, independent of both : it serves as an introduction to them or as a manual. Lastly, the Novellae are single and subsequent additions and-alterations, and it is merely an accidental circum-stance that a third edition of the Code was not made at the end of Justinian's reign, which would have comprised theNovellae which had a permanent