JOURNAL: Pro Memorie. Bijdragen tot de Rechtsgeschiedenis der Nederlanden XXVI (2024), No. 1

Redactioneel (Bram Van Hofstraeten & Paul Brood)
DOI 10.5117/PROM2024.1.001.REDA

Arbitrage in de vroegmoderne Nederlanden (A.J.B. Sirks)
DOI 10.5117/PROM2024.1.002.SIRK
Abstract:

Arbitration has always been used to conclude conflicts outside of court. The Low Countries were no exception. Although based on an agreement between parties, there were rules to be followed; and the condition that an arbitral decision should be fair and equitable always made it possible to bring the case on these grounds before the competent court. A problem was the enforcement of an arbitral decision. In Flanders a solution was found: the voluntary condemnation, imposed upon request by the competent court on parties. This remedy was followed widely in the Northern Netherlands (and for all kinds of agreements), but appears to have been replaced in the Southern Netherlands by confirmation of the arbitral decision upon request by the competent court. This practice was probably taken over from France.

Vorstenportretten in vroege drukken van wetgeving in Holland en Zeeland (1500-1540) Vorstelijke propaganda of slimme marketing van drukkers-boekverkopers? (Marie-Charlotte Le Bailly)
DOI 10.5117/PROM2024.1.003.BAIL
Abstract:

Around 1500, just like other sovereigns in Europe, the higher authorities in the Habsburg Netherlands immediately used the printing press in the context of legal and political communication, for example to promulgate laws and statutes. Moreover, their visual aspect played an essential role in their dissemination, as many editions contain woodcuts with princely emblems and/or portraits. Because producing woodcuts was a labourintensive and costly process, printers reused woodblocks from other books, also in legislation. For example, Willem Vorsterman reused portraits of sovereigns he commissioned for his Excellente cronike van Vlaenderen (Antwerp, 1531) in his editions of ordinances. This contribution showcases illustrated ordinances issued in the county of Holland-Zeeland (1500-1540) and traces the origin of reused woodcuts in other texts. Were these portraits purely meant as political communication by the sovereign or was using this particular kind of woodcuts an invention of book printers to promote a new genre?

Rechtsgeleerde rechtsvinding in de Decisiones van Willem Radelant (1538-1612) (E.G.D. Van Dongen & J.M. Milo)
DOI 10.5117/PROM2024.1.004.DONG
Abstract:

Customary law, the unwritten mores of a populace, has a long tradition next to written law. Reception of Roman law, appearance of codified law and positivist methodologies have manoeuvred custom to the margins of the law as it stands, at least in the Netherlands, at the edge of the world. It should be taken seriously, however. The Decisiones of Willem Radelant, president of the Court of Utrecht, are a treasure trove in learned reasoning, and reveal customs growing from facts into accepted law, on the basis of formal criteria (mos, populus, tempus, ratio and aequitas). In Radelants reasoning the acceptance or denial of custom is remarkably oriented on the facts of the case, soundly distinguishing the specific from the general; it provides a systematic place for unwritten rule and decision, between the written signposts of Roman, Canon, feudal and local statutory rules and principles. It does not hesitate either to conditionally give primacy to custom over written law. It is thus a scholarly tale in practical decision-making, with mind and heart, on soft law in hard times

Over de verblinding van twee jonge nationaalsocialistische juristen (Corjo Jansen)
DOI  10.5117/PROM2024.1.005.JANS
Abstract:

The main roles in this article are for Harry van Cranenburgh (1915-1991) and Henk van der Heijden (1916-2012). They were students in Leiden in the decade before World War II. The author is searching for an answer on the question: which ideals and ideas cherished these young lawyers? It looks as they were convinced that the Dutch legal science had come to an end.

Knopen doorhakken en knopen tellen Over de afschaffing van handwissel en huurcerter (H.W. van Boom & M.P.F. Smit)
DOI 10.5117/PROM2024.1.006.BOOM
Abstract:

In the late 20th-century Netherlands, two peculiar types of Dutch rights in rem dating from medieval times were abolished. These two types of customary rights had different characters and different local origins. What they had in common was that in their final years, they hampered economic progress and became increasingly burdensome in socio-economic respect. This article analyses and compares the social and administrative pathways to abolition from both a legal historical and agenda-building perspective.

Recensies

• Natiestaat en kolonialisme (H.U. Jessurun d’Oliveira, Natiestaat & kolonialisme: een ongemakkelijk verbond. Ras en nationaliteit in de negentiende eeuw. Den Haag, Boom juridisch, 2023, 290 p. ISBN 978-94-6212-834-7) (Peter A.J. van den Berg)
• Rijkdom van rekesten (Joris Oddens, Op veler verzoek. Inclusieve politiek in Nederland (1780-1860). Amsterdam 2023. 324 p. ʬ 29,90. ISBN 9789024462476) (Paul Brood)

Read the issue online here.