[sb. of action from CODIFY: prob. from mod.F.]
1. Reduction (of laws) to a code.
1817. Bentham (title), Papers relative to Codification & Public Instruction. Ibid. (c. 1830), Justice & Codification Petit., Wks. V. 639/1. No otherwise than by codification can the reform here prayed for be carried into effect.
1840. Mill, Diss. & Disc., Bentham (1859), I. 373. He [Bentham] demonstrated the necessity and practicability of codification, or the conversion of all law into a written and systematically arranged code.
1876. Green, Short Hist., viii. 570. Bills were laid before the House for the codification of the law.
2. gen. Systematization.
1874. Lewes, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 695. (Lagrange & Hegel), At the best it is but a Method of codification, and its merits must be estimated by its success in codifying the results reached by Science.
1878. Fiske, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 37. Science is but the codification of experience.