Institutes (Justinian)

The Institutes (Latin: Institutiones) is a component of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the 6th-century codification of Roman law ordered by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I.

The other parts of the Corpus Juris Civilis are the Digest, the Codex Justinianus, and the Novellae Constitutiones ("New Constitutions" or "Novels").

Most recently it has been suggested that Theophilus and Dorotheus created the extracts taken from the older works, while Tribonian revised and added new imperial laws.

[9] The Institutes of Justinian is arranged much like Gaius's work, being divided into three subjects in four books covering "persons," "things,", and "actions."

The first book considers the legal status of persons (personae), the second and third deal with things (res), while the fourth discusses Roman civil procedure (actiones).