Codification

• Author: Jeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps

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The collection and systematic arrangement, usually by subject, of the laws of a state or country, or the statutory provisions, rules, and regulations that govern a specific area or subject of law or practice.

The term codification denotes the creation of codes, which are compilations of written statutes, rules, and regulations that inform the public of acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

U.S. law is often described as a COMMON LAW system of JURISPRUDENCE. This means that it relies on previous cases, or precedents, to determine procedures and to decide the outcome of cases. U.S. jurisprudence also involves the interpretation of written laws, including constitutions, regulations, ordinances.

Codification rearranges and displaces prior statutes and case decisions. Codification of an area of law generally constitutes the whole source that is relied upon for a legal question in that area. Thus, when a state codifies its criminal laws, the statutes contained within the new code supersede the laws that had been in place prior to the codification. There are exceptions to this general rule, however. For example, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 1994 that Dr. JACK KEVORKIAN could be prosecuted under Michigan common law for assisting patient with suicide, despite the absence in Michigan's criminal code of a statute that prohibits such action law (People v. Kevorkian, 447 Mich. 436, 527 N.W.2d 714).

Public demand for written laws can be traced to the dawn of recorded history. The first known codification of laws is attributed to Ur-Nammu,

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king of Ur, in the twenty-fifth century B.C. Lipit-Ishtar, king of Isin, in ancient Sumer, promulgated a written code around 2210 B.C. Hammurabi, a monarch in Babylonia, codified laws in the eighteenth century B.C. Both Lipit-Ishtar and Hammurabi announced in the prologues of their respective codes that these compilations established justice.

Ancient Greek and Roman civilizations continued the practice of codification. However, their written codes were not always helpful. The Roman emperor Caligula wrote his laws in small characters and hung them high on pillars in order to ensnare the public. Julius Caesar attempted codification, but he was unable to reduce the enormous body of ROMAN LAW to its essentials.

Not until the sixth century A.D. did Rome, under emperor JUSTINIAN I, accomplish a complete codification of its laws. The Code of Justinian, known as the Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Laws), became the...