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WEEK 4 – CODIFICATION IN FRANCE 38
1. LECTURE 4.1 38
2. LECTURE 4.2 44
3. WORKSHOP 48
WEEK 5 – CODIFICATION IN GERMAN COUNTRIES 51
1. LECTURE 5.1 51
3. LECTURE 5.2 56
4. WORKSHOP 61
WEEK 6 – CODIFICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS 65
1. LECTURE 6.1 65
2. LECTURE 6.2 70
3. WORKSHOP 73
WEEK 7 – CODIFICATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 77
1. LECTURE 7.1 77
2. LECTURE 7.2 80
3. WORKSHOP 82
Page 2 of 85
,Dia’s Notes Legal History
Week 1 – Introduction / Natural Law
1. Literature Lecture 1.1 Introduction
The Codification
Ius ex scripto – written law
Ius ex non scripto – unwritten law
The need to record the law comes from the need for legal certainty. The term “codification”
dates from the time of the Enlightenment, it was first used by the Englishman Jeremy Bentham.
“Codification is written law, to which the government gives exclusive validity on account of
its authority; This exclusivity makes the legal record a complete one.”
Three characteristics for a codification This will be on the exam!
1. A government that exerts authority over its subjects;
2. A written law;
3. The completeness of that law, achieved through the authority of the government, who
grants that law exclusive validity.
The Legislator
Legislator’s powers are limited; he can issue laws, but he has no control over their future
explanation. Authoritive explanation by the legislator is called the authentic interpretation.
Legislator’s attempts to keep danger of ‘damage’ to his code of law; ‘référé législatif’ the judge
decides for himself, by way of explanation, whether the law should refer back to the legislator.
The final word is with the interpreter; he decides the content of the legal rule, aided by his
knowledge and insights.
Part of the population, the plebs, removed itself from the city of Rome and only returned after
the patricians had solemnly sworn that the law would be written down. However, the rules of
explanation of this law were and remained only known to the patrician priest caste, the
plebs did not get what they had expected of the written law.
Ultimately it is the authority of the government and not the quality of the content, that elevates
the text to a codification. No student would have travelled to the glossator of Bologna, if it
hadn’t been the law of the imperium romanum – the current law of the Christian.
Purposes of a codification
1. Legal Certainty – Person has the right to know on the basis of which legal regulation
the sentence was administered.
2. Economical – Cross-border trade and money transactions demand a uniform regulation.
3. Political – Civil law in particular is an important way to forge and strengthen a slowly
maturing national unity, often established during politically tumultuous times.
The legislator – being the government – has in principle no other task than to grant its authority
to a legal text and to elevate it to the only and complete source of law.
Page 3 of 85
, Dia’s Notes Legal History
The Judge
To interpret the law there are several method’s of interpretation used This will be on the exam!
1. Grammatical interpretation / Linguistic Explanation – The meaning of the words
in daily usage.
2. Statute-Historical Interpretation – Determine what the legislator meant when the text
was written.
3. Legal-Historical Interpretation – Looks for the origin of that particular rule and can
hail back to it.
4. Methodical / Systematic Interpretation – Checks whether and how a rule fits into the
system of law, how it relates to other rules, how facts that are to be assessed can be fit
into the system and can be construed as a legal concept.
5. Teleological Interpretation – The objective of a rule is taken into account and in which
the explanation is made subordinate to this objective.
Analogy – A rule that on the basis of its working and intention is not applicable to the case that
is being assessed, is still applied because the unregulated case looks like the case that is covered
by the rule.
The same government that grants the legislation its authority, also establishes this interpretative
authority and gives it authority.
The English judge is not allowed to attach to the words of a legal text anything other than the
traditional explanation.
Important role of the judge; decides what is law
Through the fundamental obligation to explain the codification
Through the fundamental freedom of explanation a judge cannot be given any
limitations.
The judge will have to accurately account for every change of the meaning of a word.
Disadvantage: The judge can explain the text according to the political opinions of his time;
however nasty they may be.
Advantage: Unlimited interpretation is that the meaning does not become fixed, but is always
adapted to the period and circumstances.
Page 4 of 85
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