Code of Justinian

Code of Justinian, Latin Codex Justinianus, formally Corpus Juris Civilis

(Body of Civil Law), the collections of laws and legal interpretations
developed under the sponsorship of the Byzantine emperor Justinian
I from AD 529 to 565. Strictly speaking, the works did not constitute a new legal
code. Rather, Justinians committees of jurists provided basically two reference
works containing collections of past laws and extracts of the opinions of the
great Roman jurists. Also included were an elementary outline of the law and a
collection of Justinians own new laws.
The Justinian code consists of four books: (1) Codex Constitutionum, (2)
Digesta, or Pandectae, (3) Institutiones, and (4) Novellae Constitutiones Post
Codicem.
Work on the Codex Constitutionum began soon after Justinians accession in
527, when he appointed a 10-man commission to go through all the known
ordinances, or constitutions, issued by the emperors, weed out the
contradictory and obsolescent material, and adapt all provisions to the
circumstances of that time. The resultant 10-book Codex Constitutionum was
promulgated in 529, all imperial ordinances not included in it being repealed. In
534 a new commission issued a revised Codex (Codex Repetitae Praelectionis)
containing 12 books; the revisions were based partly on Justinians own new
legislation.

The Digesta was drawn up between 530 and 533 by a commission of 16

lawyers, under the presidency of the jurist Tribonian. They collected and
examined all the known writings of all the authorized jurists; extracted from
them whatever was deemed valuable, generally selecting only one extract on
any given legal point; and rephrased the originals whenever necessary for
clarity and conciseness. The results were published in 50 books, each book
subdivided into titles. All juridical statements not selected for the Digesta were
declared invalid and were thenceforth never to be cited at law.
The Institutiones, compiled and published in 533 under Tribonians supervision
and relying on such earlier texts as those of Gaius, was an elementary
textbook, or outline, of legal institutions for the use of first-year law students.
The Novellae Constitutiones Post Codicem (or simply, in English, the Novels)
comprised several collections of new ordinances issued by Justinian himself
between 534 and 565, after publication of the revised Codex.

Latin was the language of all the works except the Novels, which were almost
all published in Greek, though official Latin translations existed for the western
Roman provinces.

Quoted from Brittanica: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Code-of-Justinian