When Justinian became sole ruler of the Byzantine Empire in A.D. 527, he ordered the preparation of three compilations of Roman law that together formed the Corpus Juris Civilis. These works have become known individually as the Code, which collected the legal pronouncements of the Roman emperors, the Institutes, an elementary student's textbook, and the Digest, by far the largest and most highly prized of the three compilations. The Digest was assembled by a team of sixteen academic lawyers commissioned by Justinian in 533 to cull everything of value from earlier Roman law. It was for centuries the focal point of legal education in the West and remains today an unprecedented collection of the commentaries of Roman jurists on the civil law. Commissioned by the Commonwealth Fund in 1978, Alan Watson assembled a team of thirty specialists to produce this magisterial translation, which was first completed and published in 1985 with Theodor Mommsen's Latin text of 1878 on facing pages. This paperback edition presents a corrected English-language text alone, with an introduction by Alan Watson. Links to the three other volumes in the set: Volume 1 [Books 1-15]Volume 2 [Books 16-29]Volume 4 [Books 41-50]

The most famous and influential collection of legal materials in world history, now available in a four-volume English-language paperback edition.

The first reliable annotated English translation, with original texts, of one of the central sources of the Western legal tradition.

Codified by Justinian I and published under his aegis in A.D. 533, this celebrated work of legal history forms a fascinating picture of ordinary life in Rome.

Provides a comprehensive description of the system of Roman law, discussing slavery, property, contracts, delicts and succession. Also examines the ways in which Roman law influenced later legal systems such as the structure of European legal systems, tort law in the French civil code, differences between contract law in France and Germany, parameters of judicial reasoning, feudal law, and the interests of governments in making and communicating law.