Bizans imparatoru Iustinianus’un (527-565) hukuk alanında reform yapmak amacıyla hazırlattığı Corpus Iuris Civilis (Yurttaşlar Hukuku Derlemesi) 528-534 de tamamlanmıştır. Bu derleme : 1- Codex (Tüzükler), 2- Digesta (İçtihatlar), 3- Institutiones (Temel Hukuk Bilgisi) olmak üzere üç kısımdan oluşmuş; Novellae (Kanunlar) kısmı ise, derlemeye Ortaçağ’da sonradan dahil edilmiştir. Codex; Hadrianus’tan (117-138) Iustinianus’a kadar olan süreçte çıkarılmış emirnameleri içermektedir. Digesta; Klasik Hukuk Dönemi (MÖ 27-MS 250) eserlerinin derlemesidir. Institutiones de; kanun gücüne haiz, hukuk öğrencilerine bir hukuka giriş kitabı niteliğindedir. Novellae ise; üç kısmın yayınlanmasından Iustinianus’un ölümüne kadar geçen dönemde (534-565) çıkarılmış emirnamelerden teşekküldür. Derlemenin meydana getirilişinde iki düşüncenin egemen olduğu görülmekte olup, bunlar : 1- Klasik Hukuk Dönemi hukukunu yeniden geçerli kılmak, 2- Zamanın toplumsal ve ekonomik gereksinmelerini karşılayacak bir hukuk düzeni kurmak idi. Günümüzde, Roma hukukundan ve bu hukukun modern hukuklar [(Fransız Medeni Kanunu (Code Napoléon / Code Civil), Avusturya Medeni Kanunu (Allegemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch), Alman Medeni Kanunu (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch), İsviçre Medeni Kanunu ve Borçlar Kanunu (Schweizerisches Zivilgesetzbuch-Schweizerisches Obligationen Recht) vb.] üstündeki etkilerinden söz edildiğinde kastedilen, Corpus Iuris Civilis’te toplanmış olan hukuktur. Çünkü, bu derleme içeriği ile modern çağların hukuklarının gelişimini etkilemiştir. Bu çalışmada; Iustinianus dönemine gelindiğinde işlerliksiz ve düzensiz bir görünüm arz eden Roma hukukunda ki karışıklık ya da çelişki yaratan öğelerin ayıklanması, yerine sarih, özlü ve pratik kurallar getirilmesi amacıyla hazırlanan Corpus Iuris Civilis’in; Iustinianus’un ideali çerçevesinde ortaya çıkışı, içeriği ve modern hukuklara etkisi tarihi perspektif bağlamında anahatları ile ele alınmıştır.

The period of Byzantine emperor Justinian (527-565) has been considered by most of historians as the Golden Age of Byzantine Empire. When he ascended to the Byzantine throne, he had two goals. One of them was, as a Roman emperor, to restore empire’s former integrity and prosperity and the other one was, as a Christian emperor, to bring everyone together under the roof of Orthodoxy with the belief that determining dogmas and order of church dominatingly was correct. Rome had founded jurisprudence, thus founded state order and unity, while emperor established basis of absolute sovereignty. He realized that importance of this legacy, role he could still play and it was mandatory to preserve it. Having this correct vision enabled him to carry out this duty to a good result and find staff who could apply his thoughts. This was the most remarkable and famous part of the things he had put forward. His fame mostly came from his work, Corpus Juris Civilis (Law Collection of Citizens), in law field. Justinian had Corpus Juris Civilis prepared in order to reform the law and it was completed from 528 to 534. This review consists of three parts, namely: 1- Codex I-II (Statutes), 2- Digesta (Case Law), 3- Institutiones (Basic Law Knowledge); Novellae (Laws) part was included into the compilation later during the Middle Age. Codex contains ordinances which were issued during the process from Hadrianus period (117-138) to Justinian period. Digesta is the compilation of Classical Law Period’s (27 BC-AD 250) works. Institutiones having legal power, carried the characteristics of law textbook for law students. While Novellae is comprised of ordinances which were issued during the period from the publication of three parts to the death of Justinian (534-565). There were two prevailing idea for the production of the compilation. The first one was to validate law of Classical Law Period and the second one was to establish a legal order to meet social and economic needs of that time. The name Corpus Juris Civilis was not given by Justinian. It was published under this title in 1583 by Romanist French scholar, Dionysius Gothofredus (1549-1622). Corpus Juris Civilis had reciprocity with the Corpus Juris Canonici, which collected law of Christian church. It was previously called Corpus Juris as well, civilis adjective was added to distinguish it from Corpus Juris Canonici. The preparation dates of Corpus Juris Civilis’ parts do not comply with print formats that we have today. According to preparation dates, it was supposed to be arranged as Codex I (528), Digesta (530-533), Institutiones (533), Codex II (534) revised due to being out of date, Novellae (534-565). However, its current edition was arranged as Institutiones, Digesta, Codex, Novellae. Corpus Juris Civilis, considered as literary mosaic with its outer appearance. Ordinances and parts taken from classical laws were put into together and formed a composition. Codex is the most successful part of the work. Each ordinance is separate laws in itself, their date orders are certain. Therefore, it is not difficult to put in order in terms of their topics. Since ordinances contain closest applicable law, they are also the closest to the mind. Digesta and Institutiones, technically, are not successful compared to Codex. It is very difficult to separate books of many legists in to thousands of parts and put them together in a different system along with preserving rational integrity of law and doing this for a new system. There are several incorrect, missing, contradictory and unraveled parts in Digesta. However, entirely it is still a marvelous work. Even though seems to be duplicated from cover to cover, it led to establishment of a law quite different than classical one. Today when we talked about the Roman law and its influences on modern laws and so on, what really meant was the law which was collected in Corpus Juris Civilis. Since this compilation affected the development of modern period laws