ABSTRACT
The end of the western Roman Empire in 476 A.D. following the incursion of Germanic peoples from the east led to a revival of Roman jurisprudence from the classical period (the first and second centuries A.D.) in the eastern part of the Empire. Between the years 528 and 534 A.D. the Emperor Justinian initiated a collection of imperial Roman law from the reign of Hadrian (117-138 A.D.) onwards in a Codex (code) and a collection in fifty books of the writings of numerous classical Roman jurists in the Digesta (digests) or Pandectae (pandects). Together with an introductory textbook, the Institutiones (institutes) – based on the writings of the jurist Gaius – the Codex and Digesta are referred to as the Corpus iuris civilis (body of civil law) of Justinian.3
