Editing Corpus Juris Civilis (section)

==Compilation process==
[[File:Mosaic of Justinianus I - Basilica San Vitale (Ravenna).jpg|right|thumb|Justinian I depicted on a [[mosaic]] in the church of [[Basilica of San Vitale|San Vitale]], Ravenna, Italy]]
Justinian acceded to the imperial throne in [[Constantinople]] in 527.<ref name=kaiser>{{cite book |last1=Kaiser |first1=Wolfgang |title=The Cambridge Companion to Roman Law |date=2015 |pages=119–148}}</ref> Six months after his accession, in order to reduce the great number of imperial constitutions and thus also the number of court proceedings, Justinian arranged for the creation of a new collection of imperial constitutions (''Codex Iustinianus'').<ref name=kaiser/> The commission in charge of the compilation process was explicitly authorized to leave out or change text and to delete what was obsolete or contradictory.<ref name=kaiser/> Soon, in 529, the Codex was completed and was conferred the force of law in the whole empire, replacing all earlier constitutions and the ''[[Codex Theodosianus]]''.<ref name=kaiser/>

A little more than a year after the enactment of the first edition of the Code, Justinian appointed a commission headed by [[Tribonian]] to compile the traditional jurists' law in a new, shortened and contemporary codification: the 'Digest or Pandects'.<ref name=kaiser/> The traditional collection of jurists' law, Justinian believed, was so extensive that it had become unmanageable, necessitating a new compilation. The commission completed its work within three years, in 533.<ref name=kaiser/>

Tribonian's commission surveyed the works of classical jurists who were assumed in Justinian's time to have the authority to clarify law ({{lang|la|ius respondendi}}) and whose works were still available.<ref name=kaiser/> In total, there are excerpts from 38 jurists in the Digest.<ref name=kaiser/>