What is the name of Justinian I's influential legal code?

• A. Digest
• B. Institutes
• C. Code
• D. Corpus iuris civilis

Answer: (D)

Corpus iuris civilis, meaning “Body of Civil Law,” is the name of Justinian I’s influential legal code. It was commissioned in the 6th century to collect, organize, and clarify centuries of Roman law into a single, coherent system. The work is divided into four parts: the Codex, which gathers imperial constitutions; the Digest (also called the Pandects), a vast compilation of jurists’ writings; the Institutes, a student textbook outlining the main legal principles; and the Novellae Constitutiones, which contains later laws issued after the Codex. This comprehensive collection preserved Roman legal thought and became the foundation for much of medieval and modern European civil-law tradition.