ABSTRACT
The great contribution of the natural law school of jurisprudence to codification was however to insist upon the systematization of the law upon institutional lines, that is according to the presentational scheme originated by Gaius and followed by the Institutes of Justinian. The most influential and long-lasting Germanic codification of this period is undoubtedly the Austrian code of 1811, the Allgemeines Burgerliches Gesetzbuch. Plans for a codification of civil law in the Hapsburg empire had begun in the eighteenth century under the empress Maria Theresia. The law of the codifications was the law made by the legislator, and it was therefore thought very wrong that the judicial power, still less unofficial juristic commentators, should influence its meaning or interpretation. Codification also ended the life of Roman law and the mediaeval scholarship surrounding it as a living source of law. There are still parts of the world with civilian systems, in whole or in part, where codification has not taken place.
