Simple English definitions for legal terms
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A legal code is a complete set of laws that are carefully organized and officially published. It includes both written and unwritten laws on a particular subject, and may include new laws and amendments to existing ones. The most famous legal code is the one created by the Roman Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, which is known as the Corpus Juris Civilis.
A legal code is a complete system of laws, rules, or regulations that are carefully arranged and officially promulgated. It is a compilation of existing statutes and much of the unwritten law on a subject, which is newly enacted as a complete system of law. A code is composed partly of such materials as might be at hand from all sources, such as statutes, cases, and customs, supplemented by such amendments, alterations, and additions as are deemed by the codifiers necessary to harmonize and perfect the existing system.
These examples illustrate how a legal code is a complete system of laws that are carefully arranged and officially promulgated. The Uniform Commercial Code governs commercial transactions in the United States, while the Code of Justinian is a legal code that was compiled by order of the Roman Emperor Justinian and first authoritatively published in A.D. 529.