Footnotes
| 1 |
Normally, one uses either a dogmatic or a functional approach when engaged in comparative law. In the dogmatic approach, the researcher solely looks at the rules as they can be found in the formal sources of law.
If one uses a functional approach, one does not take the legal norms as one’s starting point, but rather starts with a problem. To discover how this problem is solved in different legal orders, one then takes both the formal sources of law and the broader legal, economic and cultural context into account. The comparison I am conducting cannot be easily put within either one of these categories. Although I am primarily interested in comparing the operation of the freedom principle per se, I will also take the broader socio-political context into account. In general, see Zweigert and Kötz (1998), pp. 32–47.
| 2 |
Peabody and Grinberg (2011), p. 332.
| 3 |
1834 in England, 1794 for France (with a small excursus up to the second abolition in 1844) and 1863 for the Dutch Republic (and later Kingdom of the Netherlands).
| 4 |
As the various provinces of the Dutch Republic and the Southern Netherlands were in a personal union starting from the Habsburg period until the 1581 Act of Abjuration, North and South will be treated together here. After the secession, the crux of the exposition will focus on the United Provinces (alternatively called the Dutch Republic). I will give some remarks on the (little) available material we know of regarding slavery and the law in the Spanish and Austrian Netherlands. When I refer to “Low Countries”, I am talking about both the Northern and the Southern part.
| 5 |
Persons interested in this matter will find satisfaction in i.a. the works of Professor Iain Whyte and Professor John Cairns. Professor Cairns also gave an introduction to the topic of slavery in Scotland as the speaker of the inaugural Alan Watson Memorial Lectures in 2019, and which are freely available online. I wish to thank Professor Cairns for having sent me all his articles related to slavery and the law. Private correspondence with Professor John Cairns, 30/05/2016.
| 6 |
For Central Europe, see Brahm and Rosenhaft (2016). I should also mention here that the European Research Council is currently funding a project on “The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and its Slaves”, the results of which will greatly enhance our knowledge on slavery and the freedom principle in the German-speaking sphere. On the Nordic countries, see Hall (1992); Palsson (2016).
| 7 |
A generic overview can be found in Phillips (2014), pp. 10–27. On the freedom principle in Spain and Portugal more specifically, see MartĂn Casares and GarcĂa Barranco (2011); Nogueira Da Silva and Grinberg (2011).
| 8 |
A generic overview is Rael (2015). Two works focusing on the legal aspects of slavery in the United States, the former on the formative period and the latter on the final decade of slavery, are Van Cleve (2011); Blumrosen and Blumrosen (2005). An extensive bibliography on American slavery can be found at the Oxfordbibliographies entry “The Growth and Decline of Slavery in North America”.
| 9 |
On Atlantic history in general, see Games (2006).
| 10 |
For example Tugendhat (2017); Peabody (1996), pp.
3–10; Priester (1987), pp. 93–96.
| 11 |
For example Drescher (2009), pp. 26–87; Hondius (2014), pp. 211–246. Treatment of the freedom principle in these works does not always focus on legal aspects. The same can also be said of David Brion Davis’ impressive trilogy The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution and The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Emancipation.
| 12 |
It is certainly true that the province of Zeeland, in particular the cities of Vlissingen and Middelburg, were also heavily involved in the Atlantic slave trade, certainly so with the Middelburgse Commercie Compagnie after the Dutch West India Company lost its monopoly on the Dutch slave trade in 1730. However, whilst involved in the slave trade, none of the cities in Zeeland had a significant black presence, which explains the focus on Holland. Priester (1987), pp. 17–20.
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F. Batselé Liberty, Slavery and the Law in Early Modern Western EuropeStudies in the History of Law and Justice17
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36855-5_2