Codification

Codification is the systematic arrangement of laws into an organized body of written rules. It gathers, clarifies, and structures legal rules, sometimes replacing earlier sources.

Legal code: A systematic written collection of legal rules organized as a coherent body. Codification produces legal codes by arranging rules into an ordered structure.
Code of Hammurabi: An ancient Babylonian collection of laws inscribed under King Hammurabi in the eighteenth century BCE. It is an early, famous example of rules gathered into a public written collection.
Common law: A legal tradition in which judicial decisions are a major source of law alongside legislation. Common-law jurisdictions often rely more heavily on precedent than on comprehensive codes.
Rule of law: The principle that public power is exercised under publicly known, consistently applied laws. Written codes can support predictability by making governing rules more accessible and stable.
Statute: A law enacted by a legislature or other lawmaking body. Statutes supply many of the rules that codifiers collect and organize.
Twelve Tables: Rome's earliest publicly displayed written laws, traditionally dated to the mid-fifth century BCE. The Twelve Tables show Roman demands for public, fixed legal rules.
Civil law (legal system): A legal tradition organized primarily around comprehensive written codes and statutes. Civil law is the broad legal tradition most closely associated with codification.
Legal certainty: The quality of law being sufficiently clear and predictable for people to understand its consequences. Codification seeks to make legal rules easier to identify and anticipate.
Legal interpretation: The process of determining the meaning and application of legal texts. Courts interpret the language codification makes central to legal reasoning.
Corpus Juris Civilis: The sixth-century compilation and revision of Roman law undertaken under Byzantine emperor Justinian I. Its systematic compilation became a major model for later civil-law codification.

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