Around 450 B.C., this committee formed and created the earliest mandate of Roman law, the XII Tables of Law. The Tables were a combination of old Roman laws and new statutes that were adapted to meet the needs of the new Republic. The leaders of the new Republic realized that all citizens both Plebeians and Patricians were equal before the law. Not only were many of the laws changed, but the committee also simplified them in order to make them fair and just to both groups. This simplification is called codification.
Codification is the orderly arrangement of laws into understandable, compact volumes.
All of this contributed to a more open legal system which gave the people more protection. This combination of laws, traditions, and customs became known as the Roman Constitution. The Constitution was then modified to become the Roman Jurisprudence. Many times this has been compared to the Constitution of the United States. Unfortunately, there were cases of inhumane Roman courts in the New Testament.