J W Wessels

History of the Roman-Dutch Law J W Wessels

With a new introduction by Michael Hoeflich, John H. & John M. Kane Professor of Law, University of Kansas School of Law. Originally published: Grahamstown, Cape Colony: African Book Co., 1908. iv (new introduction), xv, 791 pp. Roman-Dutch law is a hybrid of medieval Dutch law, mainly Germanic in origin, and Roman law as defined by the Corpus Juris Civilis and its later reception. It was developed in Holland during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Bynkershoek, Damhouder, Grotius and other important Roman-Dutch scholars had a profound influence on the development of European civil law and were the primary conduit that brought civil-law ideas to America. Dutch colonists exported it to South Africa, where it became the primary component of its current legal system. This engagingly written history by a judge of the Traansvaal Supreme Court offers a thorough analysis of Roman-Dutch jurisprudence and its intellectual background. He devotes a great deal of attention to its literature, and he analyzes several treatises at length. Valuable as a introduction to one of the most important legal systems in history, it is equally useful as a reference.