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France and the Netherlands

This rule, however, suffused by a strange mixture of fear, relief, and elation, remained at first mere theory. In his book Lex Scripta Abrogate5 Hendrik Kooiker has demon­strated that Roman law continued to play a very signifi­cant role in the first decades after the enactment of the codifications, in both the Netherlands and France.

He even refers to a 'third renaissance' of Roman law. Its practical significance, according to Kooiker, can hardly be over­stated. The extraordinary degree of substantial continuity between the tradition of the ius commune and the code civil led to Roman law becoming an indispensable tool in inter­preting the new code, in resolving doctrinal disputes, and in filling gaps in the law. The code civil had been intended to establish uniform law, not new law. It brought to an end the prevailing diversity of regional laws and thus ulti­mately completed the process of 'reception'.6 The ius commune rendered an essential contribution towards the establishment of a 'systhdme d'application'; it continued to be regarded as ratio scripta and to be applied as such in

if.; Bellomo (n. 3) 78 if., 149 if.; Gottfried Schiemann, 'Usus modernus und Geset- zgebung', in Barbara Dolemeyer and Dielheim Klippel (eds.), Gesdz und Gesctzge· bung in derfrilhen Neuzeil (1998), 157 if.

5Lex Scripta Abmgata: De derde renaissance van het Rnmeinsc recht, part i: De uilwendige ontwikkeling, Ars Aequi l.ibri (1996).

6 The continuity between ins commune and the French code is also emphasized by James Gordley, 'Myths of the French Civil Code', (1994) 2 American JCL 459 if. practice. It was only towards the middle of the nineteenth century that a strictly exegetical approach gained ascen­dancy.

3.

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Source: Zimmermann R.. Roman law, Contemporary law, European law. Oxford University Press,2004. — 113 p.. 2004

More on the topic France and the Netherlands:

  1. The earliest political units deserving to be called states were France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, the countries composing the Holy Roman Em­pire and Scandinavia, and the Netherlands.
  2. 7.7.1 The Reception of Roman Law in France
  3. The Codification of Civil Law in France
  4. 7.7.3 The Ius Commune in Italy, the Iberian Peninsula and the Netherlands
  5. THEORY AND PRACTICE IN THE NETHERLANDS
  6. LECTURE III ROMAN LAW IN FRANCE
  7. Atienza Manuel, Manero Juan Ruiz. A Theory of Legal Sentences. Springer Netherlands,1998. — 205 p., 1998
  8. The thousands of students from all over Europe who had studied at Bologna and other Italian universities conveyed to their own countries the new legal learning based on the revived Roman law.
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