Per una rilettura di C. 1.14.12.5 e cost. Summa rei publicae § 3, in tema di fonti giurisprudenziali

Abstract

The author suggests an explanation for the curious circumstance (generally overlooked by scholars) that the famous constitution of 30 October 529 (C. 1.14.12), in which Justinian forcefully asserts the exclusivity of the creation and interpretation of law in the hands of the emperor, closes (§ 5) with the specification that this provision does not in any way deprive the writings of the classical jurists of their value, since the imperial maiestas itself recognised their creative- interpretive role as well. In particular, the author hypothesises that this specification was intended to dispel the misunderstanding that the proclaimed imperial monopoly derogated what Justinian himself had affirmed, a few months earlier (7 April), in the introductory constitution of the Novus codex (c. Summa rei publicae § 3), namely that, in addition to the imperial leges, the writings of the classical jurists were also suitable ‘ad omnes dirimendas lites’.