NOVELS

1 definition found

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  NOVELS, civil law. The name given to some constitutions or laws of some of 
  the Roman emperors; this name was so given because they were new or 
  posterior to the laws which they had before published. The novels were made 
  to supply what bad not been foreseen in the preceding laws, or to amend or 
  alter the laws in force. 
       2. Although the novels of Justinian are the best known, and when the 


  word novels only is mentioned, those of Justinian are always intended, he 
  was not the first who gave the name of novels to his constitution and laws. 
  Some of the acts of Theodosius, Valentinien, Leo, Severus, Anthemius, and 
  others, were, also called novels. But the novels of the emperors who 
  preceded Justinian bad not the force of law, after the enactment of the law 
  by order of that emperor. Those novels are not, however, entirely useless, 
  because the code of Justinian having been composed mainly from the 
  Theodosian code and the novels, the latter frequently remove doubts which 
  arise on the construction of the code. The novels of, Justinian form the 
  fourth part of the Corpus Juris Civilis. They are directed either to some, 
  officer, or an archbishop or bishop, or to some private individual of 
  Constantinople but they all had the force and authority of law. The number 
  of the novels is uncertain. The 118th novel is the foundation and groundwork 
  of the English statute of distribution of intestate's effects, which has 
  been copied into many states of the Union. Vide 1 P. Wms. 27; Pr. in Chan. 
  593