This book deals with the foundations of legal practice in Friesland in the 17th and 18th century, specially with the way in which the Court of Friesland made use of the texts of the ius commune in it's judgements. With the help of the until now unexploited archives of the Frisian Court a selection of civil cases and legal opinions has been made which will not only interest the legal historian but the modern lawyer as well. Legal problems about for example minority, assignment, encumbrances, liability, sale, tort etc. are explained and discussed.The practical solutions of the Court based on Roman law texts taken from the Justinian Corpus Iuris Civilis enlarge the knowledge of the reader and his comprehension of the dogmatic and historical aspects of each case. If possible a comparison with Roman-Dutch law is made and each chapter ends with a reference to modern Dutch laws, illustrating the 'eternity' of the legal problems dealt with. The book also makes clear why the Frisians considered themselves as most tenacious adherents of Roman Law: juris Romani tenacissimi. Convinced of themselves the Frisians members of the Court travelled along the 'pure' Roman highway while the jurists of other provinces and countries often had left the road and taken sidepaths. The book shows us that we in fairness may speak of an independent branch in the big tree of the ius commune: Roman-Frisian law.

This book presents an analysis of global legal history in Modern times, questioning the effect of political revolutions since the 17th century on the legal field. Readers will discover a non-linear approach to legal history as this work investigates the ways in which law is created. These chapters look at factors in legal revolution such as the role of agents, the policy of applying and publicising legal norms, codification and the orientations of legal writing, and there is a focus on the publicization of law. The author uses Herbert Hart’s schemes to conceive law as a human artefact or convention, being the union between primary rules of obligations and secondary rules conferring powers. Here we learn about those secondary rules and the legal construction of the Modern state and we question the extent to which codification and law reporting were likely to revolutionize the legal field. These chapters examine the hypothesis of a legal revolution that could have concerned many countries in modern times. To begin with, the book considers the legal aspect of the construction of Modern States in the 17th and 18th centuries. It goes on to examine the consequences of the codification movement as a legal revolution before looking at the so-called “constitutional” revolution, linked with the extension of judicial review in many countries after World War II. Finally, the book enquires into the construction of an EU legal order and international law. In each of these chapters, the author measures the scope of the change, how the secondary rules are concerned, the role of the professional lawyers and what are the characters of the new configuration of the legal field. This book provokes new debates in legal philosophy about the rule of change and will be of particular interest to researchers in the fields of law, theories of law, legal history, philosophy of law and historians more broadly.

Showcases a novel method for approaching private international law combining theoretical insight, textual analysis and historical context.

This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of medieval Frisian law, focusing on the influence of Roman and canon law in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It makes use of recent translations of Old Frisian legal texts to show the evolution of Frisian law and to unveil why the Frisians were motivated to change their traditional laws. The book covers everything from oaths as evidence in Frisian procedures, to whether Frisian widows could be guardians of their children, to the role the Frisians themselves played in the evolution of their legal system.

From 1585 to 1843, the Dutch town Franeker housed the University of Franeker. It had its peak in the seventeenth century and attracted students from Protestant countries throughout Europe. A library was founded right from the start and its collection has been preserved almost entirely. Eleven catalogues were printed in the course of its existence, and as a result the development of the collection can be examined chronologically. The Library of Franeker University in Context, 1585–1843 discusses the relationship with education at Franeker University in detail, and makes a comparison with other similar libraries.

Quite by accident, Roman law and English law share a peculiar dual structure. In both systems, the law (ius civile, Common law) was supported, amended and corrected by a second legal source (ius honorarium, Equity) found in the jurisdiction of particular magistrates. How did this dual structure come into being in Rome and England, and how did it influence legal developments? In Law & Equity: Approaches in Roman law and Common law, seven specialists explore the origins and consequences of this interaction. The history of equity and law is treated by Willem Zwalve, Paul Brand, David Ibbetson and Mike Macnair, while John Cartwright, Hendrik Verhagen, Frits Brandsma and Willem Zwalve offer a comparative legal history on issues of substantive law.

This volume surveys 150 law books of fundamental importance in the history of Western legal literature and culture. The entries are organized in three sections: the first dealing with the transitional period of fifteenth-century editions of medieval authorities, the second spanning the early modern period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, and the third focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributors are scholars from all over the world. Each ‘old book’ is analyzed by a recognized specialist in the specific field of interest. Individual entries give a short biography of the author and discuss the significance of the works in the time and setting of their publication, and in their broader influence on the development of law worldwide. Introductory essays explore the development of Western legal traditions, especially the influence of the English common law, and of Roman and canon law on legal writers, and the borrowings and interaction between them. The book goes beyond the study of institutions and traditions of individual countries to chart a broader perspective on the transmission of legal concepts across legal, political, and geographical boundaries. Examining the branches of this genealogical tree of books makes clear their pervasive influence on modern legal systems, including attempts at rationalizing custom or creating new hybrid systems by transplanting Western legal concepts into other jurisdictions.

This open access book explores the history of risk management in medieval and early modern European maritime business, focusing particularly on 'General Average' – a mechanism by which extraordinary expenses regarding ship or cargo, incurred during a voyage to save the venture, are shared between all participants to protect equity. This volume traces the history of this risk management tool from its origins in the pre-Roman Mediterranean through to its use in the shipping sector today. Contributions range from the Islamic Mediterranean to the Low Countries, and taken together, provide a wide-ranging analysis of social, cultural, and political aspects of pre-modern maritime commerce in Europe.