1. Roman law. An imperial decree; a law issued by the emperor; later, in the plural form constitutiones, a collection of laws. • The constitutiones took various forms, including orationes (laws submitted to the Senate), edicta (laws — usu. of a general character — put forth by the emperor), mandata (administrative directives to imperial officials), decreta (decisions by the emperor in legal cases), and rescripta (the emperor’s responses to questions posed by litigants or imperial officials). Over time, the rapidly increasing number of constitutiones prompted their arrangement into collections such as the Theodosian Code and the Code of Justinian. They were the sole form of legislation after the third century A.D. Pl. constitu-tiones (kon-sti-t[y]oo-shee-oh-neez).
— Also termed (collectively) constitutiones principum. See CODEX THEODOSIANUS; JUSTINIAN CODE.
“The name constitutiones, applied to the law-making utterances of the Roman emperors, had a very different meaning from our word ‘constitution,’ used to denote the fundamental, organic law of the state. Every official public document issuing from the emperor, and creating, declaring, or modifying law, was a constitutio…. [A]nd it is hardly necessary to say that, although professing to come from the person of the emperor, they were actually composed by jurists, and usually by those who stood first in their profession.” James Hadley, Introduction to Roman Law 6–7 (1881).
2. Civil law. A settlement achieved without a trial; the sum paid according to the settlement.
3. Hist. In England, a statute; a provision of a statute. Pl. constitutiones (kon-sti-t[y]oo-shee-oh-neez).
