ROMAN–DUTCH LAW
Roman–Dutch law.A system of law in Holland from the mid-15th century to the early 19th
century, based on a mixture of Germanic customary law and Roman law as interpreted in medieval
and Renaissance lawbooks. • This law forms the basis of modern South African law, the law of
several other countries in southern Africa, and the law of Sri Lanka.
“The phrase ‘Roman–Dutch Law’ was invented by Simon van Leeuwen, who employed it as
the sub-title of his work entitled Paratitla Juris Novissimi, published at Leyden in 1652.
Subsequently his larger and better known treatise on the ‘Roman–Dutch Law’ was issued under
that name in the year 1664.
“The system of law thus described is that which obtained in the province of Holland from the
middle of the fifteenth to the early years of the nineteenth century. Its main principles were carried
by the Dutch into their settlements in the East and West Indies; and when some of these, namely,
the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, and part of Guiana, at the end of the eighteenth and the
beginning of the nineteenth century, passed under the dominion of the Crown of Great Britain, the
old law was retained as the common law of the territories which now became British colonies.
With the expansion of the British Empire in South Africa, the sphere of the Roman–Dutch Law
has extended its boundaries, until the whole of the area comprised within the Union of South
Africa … has adopted this system as its common law. This is the more remarkable since in Holland
itself and in the Dutch colonies of the present day the old law has been replaced by codes ….” R.W.
Lee, An Introduction to Roman–Dutch Law 2 (4th ed. 1946). [Blacks Law 8th]