Introduction

The legal system of the Netherlands has a complicated history reflecting the state's equally complicated political history. Independence from Spain and the Holy Roman Empire was achieved under the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, but the connection left a Roman law tradition. This continued to be developed locally into a distinct system of Roman Dutch law, and was carried during Holland's colonial period to South Africa and Ceylon.

The modern system, however, results from Napoleon's capture of the low countries in 1795. Roman Dutch law was abolished in 1809 and the French Civil Code introduced in 1811. After the Congress of Vienna 1815, a new kingdom of the Netherlands was created but the French legal system remained. Belgium seceded in 1830 and became a separate country, and a new Civil Code for the Netherlands appeared in 1838. Other codes followed.

A major revision of the Civil Code began in 1947, most of the "New" Civil Code coming into force between 1970 and 1992.

Acquisition policy at IALS is naturally influenced by the unfamiliarity of the Dutch language. It would be difficult to justify, on purely practical grounds, any great expansion of our collection of Netherlands law in Dutch. Of course, we try to obtain materials in English where they exist.

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Primary sources: constitution

The Constitution (Grondwet) is nominally that of 1814, but it has been amended many times. The last thorough revision was in 1983, with further amendments subsequently. There is also a Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden), enacted in 1954; this governs the relationships between the territory in Europe and the overseas territories of Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, which are part of the Kingdom. The texts of both Charter and Constitution appear in Nederlandse Wetgeving A, mentioned in the next section. An English translation of the Constitution as at 2006 is reproduced in Kortmann (see English-language works).

Electronic sources of the Constitution and Charter

A 2002 English version of the Constitution can be found on the website of the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations. Both the Constitution and the Charter are available in Dutch on the same site.

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Primary sources: codes and statutes

Statutes, decrees and regulations are published in the Staatsblad voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden which began publication in 1815. The Institute has this from 1931 to 1948 (with gaps) and from 1993 onwards. Treaties are published separately in the Tractatenblad, which is not held by IALS (recent years are on the internet - see Electronic sources of legislation, below).

The only alternative to the Staatsblad as a comprehensive up-to-date printed collection of statutes would be the Nederlandse Staatswetten series, sometimes known as "Schuurman en Jordens" or "Editie Schuurman en Jordens" and published by Kluwer on a subscription basis (not held at IALS). The set consists of about 300 paperback volumes, with regular supplementation and replacement.

Several major fields of law are governed by codes, as in other continental legal systems. The current codes are:

Nieuw Burgerlijk Wetboek (NBW) (new civil code) - some books still in preparation.

Wetboek van Koophandel (K.) (commercial code)

Wetboek van Burgerlijke Rechtsvordering (Rv.) (civil procedure code), together with the Wet op de Rechterlijke Organisatie (law on the organisation of the courts)

Wetboek van Strafrecht (Sr.) (criminal code)

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Wetboek van Strafvordering (criminal procedure code)

Our main sources for the current constitution, codes and statutes are two multi-volume loose-leaf sets published by Kluwer:

Nederlandse Wetgeving A: Staats- en Administratiefrechtelijke Wetten (constitutional and administrative statutes)

Nederlandse Wetgeving B: De Nederlandse Wetboeken en aanverwante Wetten (Netherlands codes and related statutes)

The Institute also has Fruin, De Nederlandse Wetboeken, now published by Kluwer. This appears every two or three years, mostly recently in 2006. It is a one-volume compilation containing not only the codes (Civil Code, New Civil Code, Commercial Code, Criminal Code, Codes of Civil and Criminal Procedure) and the Constitution, but also a selection of statutes of general interest and the texts of major treaties.

Electronic sources of legislation

The official government website Overheid.nl offers the Staatsblad and the Tractatenblad from January 1995 onwards in its section "Officiële Publicaties". There is also a database of legislation currently in force (and at any date back to 2002) in the section "Wet- en Regelgeving". Both these services are free.

Subscription-based legislation databases are provided by both Kluwer and SDU, with various enhancements including parliamentary history and citing case-law. (IALS does not subscribe.)

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Law reports

Among current series we have only Nederlandse jurisprudentie 1913- (1925- at IALS) This publishes the decisions of the Hoge Raad ("High Council" = Supreme Court) and a much smaller selection of decisions of courts of first instance (rechtbanken) and second instance (gerechtshofen) in civil and criminal cases.

Recent cases decided by the Hoge Raad appear in the weekly Rechtspraak van de week 1939- (formerly published by Tjeenk Willink, now Kluwer). This is not held by the Institute, but since all the decisions appear afterwards in Nederlandse Jurisprudentie, it would only be of topical interest.

Other series not held include:

Administratiefrechtelijke beslissingen 1916- (administrative decisions)

Rechtspraak sociale verzekering 1958- (social security cases)

Schip en schade 1957- (cases on carriage, and on fire and transport insurance)

Verkeersrecht 1953- (transport law)

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As in France, there are a few periodicals which also contain court decisions:

Nederlands juristenblad 1926- (IALS complete) has summaries of recent cases

Sociaal-economische wetgeving 1952- (IALS 1962- ) reports, sometimes in full, domestic and EC decisions on economic law.

Weekblad voor privaatrecht, notariaat en registratie 1870- (IALS complete) has case digests on civil law and conflict of laws.

 

Electronic sources of case law

A selection of full-text judgments (uitspraken) starting in 1999 is freely available on the Rechtspraak.nl website. The site also has a useful English-language guide to the Dutch court system.

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Indexes and digests

At present IALS has no current indexes or digests. A statutes index is included in the loose-leaf (and CD-ROM) index to Schuurman & Jordens, mentioned above under "Primary sources: codes and statutes". Case law is indexed on the CD-ROM Nederlandse Jurisprudentie Index.

A comprehensive legal bibliography and index of periodical literature is provided by Data juridica. Kluwer, 1973- . Over 100 periodicals are indexed. Since 1998 it has appeared only in electronic form.  IALS has the paper volumes but no electronic subscription.

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Treatises

As with other foreign law collections, the emphasis in the Institute library is on major treatises on wide areas of law.

Civil Law

This is covered by two multi-volume sets (plus several monographs):

Asser, C. Handleiding tot de beoefening van het Nederlands burgerlijk recht . Kluwer. 6 parts in about 17 volumes; various editions are current. Known as "Asser-Serie". 

Pitlo, A. Het Nederlands Burgerlijk Wetboek. Gouda Quint. 5 parts in 6 vols; various editions.

Civil procedure is represented by one work:

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Rossem, W. van Verklaring van het Nederlandse Wetboek van Rechtsvordering . 4th ed., 1972. Tjeenk Willink.

Commercial Law

Apart from some useful English-language works mentioned below, we have one major textbook:

Dorhout Mees, T.J. Het Nederlands handels- en faillissementsrecht . Gouda Quint. (Netherlands commercial and insolvency law) 5 volumes in 6. Various current editions. IALS has the (superseded) 6th edition of 1974 in 3 vols.

We also have his one-volume "outline":

Dorhout Mees, T.J. Schets van het Nederlands handels- en faillissementsrecht, 6th ed. 1988. Gouda Quint (a 7th edition appeared in 1990)

Criminal law

The only general textbook we have is:

Hazewinkel-Suringa, D. Inleiding tot de studie van het Nederlandse strafrecht . 8th ed. 1981. Tjeenk Willink. (A 15th edition was published by Gouda Quint in 1996)

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English-language works on Dutch law

The IALS collection now contains too many titles to list individually. Recent items include:

Introduction to Dutch law, J.M.J. Chorus et al (ed.s). 4th ed., Kluwer, 2006

Jacobs, A. T. J. M., Labour law in the Netherlands. Kluwer, 2004

Kortmann, C.A.J.M. and Bovend'Eert, P.P.T., Dutch constitutional law . Kluwer, 2007.

Ottervanger, T. and Voorde, S.J. van der Competition law of the European Union and the Netherlands: an overview . 2nd ed., Kluwer, 2002.

Schuit, S.R., Corporate law and practice of the Netherlands . Kluwer, 2002.

Sumner, I. Family law legislation of the Netherlands : a translation including Book 1 of the Dutch Civil Code, procedural and transitional provisions and private international law legislation. Intersentia, 2003.

Sumner, I., Inheritance law legislation of the Netherlands : a translation of Book 4 of the Dutch Civil Code, procedural provisions and private international law legislation; with an introduction, "Dutch law and the Europeanisation of inheritance law", by Walter Pintens. Intersentia, c2005.

Understanding Dutch law, Sanne Taekema (ed.). Boom Juridische Uitgevers, 2004

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Periodicals

Besides the titles mentioned under Law Reports above, the Institute has the following periodicals, complete and current except where indicated. (This list excludes many serials on European and international law which are issued by Dutch publishers and held by the Library).

Ars aequi 1951-

Delikt en delinkwent 1970- , and its predecessor Tijdschrift voor strafrecht 1886-1970 (IALS 1960-1970)

Rechtsgeleerd magazijn themis 1882-

Sociaal-economische wetgeving 1956- (IALS 1962- )

Tijdschrift voor rechtsgeschiedenis 1918-

Weekblad voor privaatrecht, notariaat en registratie 1870-

 

Titles not in IALS which might be considered are

Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Rechtsfilosofie en Rechtstheorie 1972-

Tijdschrift Ondernemingsrecht 1999 - (fusion of previous titles De Naamlooze Vennootschap (company law) and T.V.V.S. / Tijdschrift voor Vennootschappen, Verenigingen en Stichtigingen (Journal for companies, associations and foundations)
 
Tijdschrift voor arbitrage 1980-

 

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Electronic resources

IALS does not at present subscribe to any Dutch online databases. The main subscription services are provided by Kluwer and SDU; both have extensive online "libraries" of databases.

The constitution, charter, official gazette, a legislation database and case law can be found on the websites mentioned above under the headings Electronic sources of the Constitution and Charter, Electronic sources of legislation and Electronic sources of case law.

The Tilburg Internet Law Library, jointly edited by law librarians at seven Dutch universities, is a useful guide to legal websites (the main pages are available in English).

A Dutch law research guide by Oswald Jansen and George Middeldorp, including an introduction to the legal system of the Netherlands, can be found on New York University's Globalex website.

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