Legal Sources

Codex Gregorianus

291

Private compilation made by Gregory, an unknown jurist, who collected the rescripts from Adrian to Diocletian. Gregory, or Gregorianus, wrote in the East about the year 291 this code, which has not come down to us, and which we know from the fragments contained in various compilations. The constitutions were divided into fourteen books in the order of the edictum and the books were divided into titles in which the constitutions were listed in chronological order.

Codex Hermogenianus

293

The Codex Hermogenianus was a private codification of Diocletian's rescripts. Consisted of a single book divided into titles which have not survived, and only fragments preserved in various compilations are known. It was expanded to include the constitutions of the years 295-305 and 364-365.
These codifications left aside all honorary law and jurisprudence and confined themselves to the provisions of the emperors.

Lex of citations

426

Was a Roman law created by the emperor Theodosius II. It was designed to help judges deal with vast amounts of jurist writings on a subject and thus to reach a decision.

Codex Theodosianus

438

The Codex Theodosianus is a compilation of the laws in force in Roman law during the Lower Empire. This body of law was official and was promulgated in the eastern part of the empire in 438 by Theodosius II himself. A year later it was promulgated in the West by order of Emperor Valentinian III. It is structured in 16 books divided into titles, within which the Imperial Constitutions appear in chronological order.

Code of Euric

Period: 470 to 480

The Codex Euricianus (Codex Euricianus) was a legal body of Visigothic law, consisting of a compilation of laws, ordered by the Visigothic king Euric sometime before 480 in Toulouse. Through the code, the customs of the Visigothic nation were recognised and reaffirmed, as well as questions of land distribution and barbarian settlement.

Breviary of Alaric

506

The Breviary of Alaric are Roman laws compiled by Roman jurists and issued by referendum Anianinus with the approval of the bishops and nobles on the orders of the Visigothic king Alaric II. This law was used by the Hispano-Romans and Gallo-Romans who lived under the rule of the Visigoths south of the Loire, rather than the Visigothic nobility who lived under their own laws enacted by Euric.

The Digest of Justinian

533

Was a compendium or digest of juristic writings on Roman law compiled by order of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in 530–533 AD. It is divided into 50 books.
The Digest was part of a reduction and codification of all Roman laws up to that time, which later came to be known as the Corpus Juris Civilis. You can find more information in iuscivile.com and in YouTube

Codex Revisus

580

It is a revision of the previous Visigothic code created by his predecessor, Euric, just as this one was a revision of the Code of Alaric. In this new body of law, certain chapters were modified, deleted and added.
No fragment of this code has survived directly, but it is known through references in the code promulgated later by Recesvinto, the Liber Iudiciorum.

Liber Iudiciorum

654

The Liber Iudiciorum was promulgated by Recceswinth in 654 and continued by Erwig and in its twelve books and fifty-four titles it provided a unitary civil, criminal and ecclesiastical legal system for both the Hispano-Roman population and the population of Gothic origin. There is a video in which they explain the set of laws (from minute 2): YouTube

Expositio ad Librum Papiensem

1054

Institutions of Justinian, of the first nine books of the Codex, including the Digest and then of the Epitome of Julian for the Novels Kind perpetual commentary, for school use, to the Liber Papiensis, which collected the edicts of the Lombard kings and the Frankish capitulars.

Corpus Iuris Civilis

1074

Civil law is distinguished from the law of nations. Every community governed by laws and customs uses partly its own law, partly laws common to all mankind. The law which people makes for its own government belongs exclusively to that state and is called civil law, as being the law of the particular state. But the law which natural reason appoints for all mankind it is obtained equally among nations, because all nations make use of it.

Dictatus Papae

1075

Is a set of 27 propositions established by Pope Gregory VII and inserted in his Register under the title "Quid valeant Pontifici Romani", defining the rights and prerogatives of the Roman pontiff in terms that had not been known until then.
This video shows the 27 propositions of the Dictatus Papae: YouTube

Custom Law

1100

Is an unwritten legal rule that comes from "a general practice accepted as law". It is the established pattern of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting, they are accepted as obligatory rules of conduct by a community.

Ius Commune

1144

Combines the forces of Roman and Canon Law, it was applicable whenever a local ordinance or custom did not contradict it. This law would be taught and respected in the formal centres of legal education in Europe. The main role of it was to fill the great gaps of legal systems in Europe in addition to acting as the medium of interpretation of existing local laws.