In
law,
codification is the
process of collecting and restating the law of a
jurisdiction in certain areas, usually by
subject, forming a
legal code, i.e. a
codex (
book) of law.
History
The first
civilization to codify its laws was ancient Babylon
. The
first real set of codified laws, the
Code of Hammurabi, was compiled
circa 1760 BC by the
Babylonian
king
Hammurabi, and is the earliest known
civil code.
Besides religious laws such as the
Torah,
important codifications were developed in the ancient
Roman Empire, with the compilations of the
Lex Duodecim Tabularum and much later
the
Corpus Iuris Civilis. These
codified laws were the exceptions rather than the rule, however, as
during much of the ancient
Roman laws were
left mostly uncodified.
The first
permanent system of codified laws could be found in
China
, with the compilation of the Tang Code in CE 624. This formed the basis
of the Chinese criminal code, which was
then replaced by the Great
Qing Legal Code, which was in turn abolished in 1912
following the Xinhai Revolution
and the establishment of the Republic of China
. The new laws of the Republic of China were
inspired by the German codified work, the
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch. A very
influential example in Europe was the French
Napoleonic code of 1804.
Another early system of laws is
Hindu law
framed by Manu and called as
Manu
Smriti. The use of civil codes in Islamic
Sharia law began with the
Ottoman Empire.
Codification in common law and civil law jurisdictions
Contrary
to popular belief, the common law has
been codified in many jurisdictions in many areas; examples include
the Law of General
Obligations of New
York
State, the English law relating to Marine insurance, which was originally
judge-made common law, and the California Civil Code.
In
civil law jurisdictions,
codification has also occurred in many areas.
Statutes of the Grand
Duchy of Lithuania were most notable codifications of law in
the Central and Eastern Europe of the 16th century. The
codification movement developed out of the philosophy of the
Enlightenment and began in
several European countries during the late 18th century (see
civil code). However, it only gained
significant momentum with the enactment of the French
Napoleonic Code in 1804.
Example: Codification in the United States
In the United States,
acts of
Congress, such as federal statutes, are published
chronologically in the order in which they become law — often by
being signed by the
President, on an individual
basis in official pamphlets called "slip laws," and are grouped
together in official bound book form, also chronologically, as
"session laws." The "session law" publication for Federal statutes
is called the
United
States Statutes at Large. Any given act may be only one page,
or hundreds of pages, in length. An act may be classified as either
a "Public Law" or a "Private Law."
Because each Congressional act may contain laws on a variety of
topics, many acts, or portions thereof are also rearranged and
published in a topical, subject matter codification. The official
codification of Federal statutes is called the
United States Code. Generally, only
"Public Laws" are codified. The United States Code is divided into
"titles" (based on overall topics) numbered 1 through 50.
Title 18, for example,
contains many of the Federal criminal statutes. Title 26 is the
Internal Revenue Code.
Even in code form, however, many statutes by their nature pertain
to more than one topic. For example, the statute making
tax evasion a felony pertains
to both criminal law and tax law, but is found only in the Internal
Revenue Code. Other statutes pertaining to taxation are found not
in the Internal Revenue Code but instead, for example, in the
Bankruptcy Code in
Title 11 of the United States
Code, or the Judiciary Code in
Title 28.
Further, portions of some Congressional acts, such as the
provisions for the effective dates of amendments to codified laws,
are themselves not codified at all. These statutes may be found by
referring to the acts as published in "slip law" and "session law"
form. However, commercial publications that specialize in legal
materials often arrange and print the uncodified statutes with the
codes to which they pertain.
In the United States, the individual states, either officially or
through private commercial publishers, generally follow the same
three-part model for the publication of their own statutes: slip
law, session law, and codification.
Recodification
Recodification refers to a process where existing codified statutes
are reformatted and rewritten into a new codified structure. This
is often necessary as, over time, the legislative process of
amending statutes and the legal process of constuing statutes by
nature over time results in a code that contains archaic terms,
superseded text, and redundant or conflicting statutes. Due to the
size of a typical government code, the legislative process of
recodification of a code can often take a decade or longer.
References
- Chinese
law