section_path: Government and military/Law
section_name: Law
paragraph_text: Law
  
  Roman law has its origins in the Twelve Tables and evolved mainly through the annual Praetorian Edict and the opinions of educated specialists called Jurists. Hadrian (r. 117–138) made the Praetorian Edict permanent and ruled that if all the Jurists agreed on a legal point, it would be considered law. The law eventually became confusing due to conflicting sources, and it was not clear what it should be. Efforts were made to reduce the confusion, such as two private collections collating the imperial constitutions since Hadrian's reign, the Codices Gregorianus and the Hermogenianus, which were developed during the reign of Diocletian (r. 284–305).
  
  Eventually, an official reform of Roman law was initiated by the East, when Theodosius II (r. 402–450) elevated five Jurists to the role of principal authorities and compiled the legislation issued since Constantine's reign into the Codex Theodosianus. This work was completed by what is collectively known today as the Corpus Juris Civilis, when Justinian I (r. 527–565) commissioned a complete standardisation of imperial decrees since Hadrian's reign, and also incorporated a comprehensive collection of Jurists' opinions, resolving conflicts to create a final authority. This work was not restricted in its scope to just civil law, but also covered the power of the emperor, the organisation of the Empire and other matters now classified as public law. After 534, Justinian would legislate the Novellae (New Laws) in Greek as well, which legal historian Bernard Stolte proposes as a convenient breaking point to demarcate the end of Roman law and the start of Byzantine law. This division is proposed largely due to the legal heritage of Western Europe coming mostly from law written in Latin as transmitted through the Corpus Juris Civilis.
  
  The researcher Zachary Chitwood claims that the Corpus Juris Civilis was inaccessible in Latin, particularly in the Empire's provinces. There was also a stronger association of Christianity with the law, after people questioned how the law was developed and used following the 7th century Islamic conquests. Together, this created the backdrop for Leo III (r. 717–741) to develop the Ecloga, 'with a greater view of humanity'. The three so-called leges speciales (the Farmers’ Law, the Seamen’s Law, and the Soldiers’ Law) were derived from the Ecloga, which Zachary Chitwood claims were likely used on a daily basis in the provinces as companions to the Corpus Juris Civilis. The Macedonian dynasty started their reform attempts with the Procheiron and the Eisagoge to replace the Ecloga due to its associations with iconoclasm, but also noteworthy because they show an effort to define the emperor's power according to the prevalent laws. Leo VI (r. 886–912) achieved the complete codification of Roman law in the Greek language with the Basilika, a monumental work consisting of 60 books, and that became the foundation of all subsequent Byzantine law. The Hexabiblos, published in 1345 by a jurist, was a law book in six volumes compiled from a wide range of Byzantine legal sources.
  
  The Roman and Byzantine law codes form the basis of the modern world's civil law tradition, underlying the legal system of Western and Eastern Europe, Latin America, African nations like Ethiopia, the countries that follow Common law, with ongoing debates about its impact on Islamic countries. As an example, the Hexabiblos was the basis of Greece's civil code until the mid-20th century. Historians used to think that "there was no continuity between Roman and Byzantine law", but this view has now changed due to new scholarship.