‘In the hope to have judged a good sentence as merchants’

Summary Arbitration is a form of conflict resolution that was popular in commercial disputes in medieval times. Its informal nature and ability to mediate the shortcomings of the formal courts have made it the supreme example of merchants solving their own disputes. However, there has been relatively little inquiry into its actual practice. This article investigates the functions and practice of arbitration in medieval Bruges, where arbitration was frequently used as a form of conflict resolution. This was not because merchants preferred extra-judicial proceedings, but because arbitration was a necessary procedure to deal with the shortcomings of the judicial framework of the aldermen of Bruges. Arbitration was exercised as a specific consequence of the context in which Bruges found itself in the second half of the fifteenth century. This context, however, also undermined the procedure. The ambivalent attitude of the Bruges aldermen towards arbitration and its impossibility to appeal allowed some undertaking merchants to use the procedure to their own benefit, and not necessarily to the benefit of commerce.

De doodstraf in het Scheldedepartement en de provincie Oost-Vlaanderen in de Franse en Hollandse tijd, 1796-1830

Summary The French revolutionary legislature imposed capital punishments for a number of serious crimes such as gang robbery, murder, poisoning, parental murder, infanticide, homicide and theft, arson and coin counterfeiting. These capital punishments reached their peak in the years 1798-1803, being the last two years of the Directoire and the first years under Napoleon. A total of 231 death sentences were handed down in the Scheldt Department and the Province of East Flanders, 70 in default and 161 contradictory, of which 129 were executed. Most death sentences were imposed for a property crime. Crimes against individuals then came only second.

Medieval juristic regulae: unity or disunity?

Summary This article is dedicated to the regulae iuris in general, and their role in medieval jurisprudence in particular. After providing a survey of the state-of-the-art literature on regulae and discussions surrounding them, the article provides arguments in support of the thesis that the use of existing regulae and the creation of new ones were an integral part of the method of medieval jurisprudence, itself part of the general medieval dialectical method of reasoning. The article also discloses the parameters and interesting preliminary results of an ongoing research project on regulae iuris in the University of Ghent.

Contextualizing four-stage legal transitions in convergent evolution

Summary This article posits that both Roman and early Chinese states underwent four stages in their multiple-step transformations from local states to major empires during the classical period. For both states, at stage 2, one dominant state formed alliance with a group of smaller autonomous polities, and at stage 3 that dominant state deepened its regulation of the smaller polities whose autonomy was curtailed. There existed striking similarities between Rome and China (early Han Empire) at stages 2 and 3 regarding the constitutional rules enforced by the two central governments to control the newly-acquired subordinate territories, which were the Macedonian/Greek states for Rome and the vassal kingdoms in eastern territories for Han Empire. In particular, this article discusses: (i) why Macedonian/Greek states have been chosen for comparative studies; (ii) similar constitutional rules at stage 2 governing the two empires’ relationships with their subordinate polities; (iii) similar legal rules at stage 3 aiming at dividing up the territories of the subordinate polities and restraining their self-rule; (iv) similar stage-3 constitutional rules that preserved some autonomy for the subordinate polities; and (v) similar stage-3 legal rules that regulated certain economic activities of the subordinate polities. After analyzing Roman governance of Macedonia/Greece within the broader context of Roman institutions for territorial integration, the article explores the underlying trends and deeper mechanism that led to such convergent evolution of legal rules.

Datio ob rem and datio ob causam – the purpose of performance in Roman law

Summary This paper deals with one of the most important unjustified enrichment claims in Roman law, the condictio causa data causa non secuta concentrating on the crucial issue of the purpose of performance. In Roman law the purpose of performance was denoted by the term res as a part of datio ob rem (giving for a purpose) or causa as a part of datio ob causam (giving on a basis); however, in the secondary literature there is a dispute over the exact meaning of those terms and their mutual relationship. Some scholars identify res with the counter-performance which was expected from the recipient. Others consider this interpretation of res as too narrow, because datio ob rem was applied not only where the giver expected counter-performance but also when he tried to achieve other goals, including that not associated with the recipient’s behaviour at all. In order to find a solution to that long-lasting dispute the article analyses typical examples of cases described in the sources as datio ob rem or datio ob causam.

Lauro Chiazzese, lo studio delle interpolazioni e i confronti ‘ritrovati’

Summary A first draft of the Parte speciale of Chiazzese’s Confronti Testuali, projected as complement of the Parte generale published in 1933, was known for quite some time, but was only recently published by Falcone. Although this is an important transcription work of the manuscript, the reconstruction provided about the historical background – partially based on two different versions of an anecdote – should be read taking into account some clarifications.

French Influences on Germany’s Commercial Courts in the Nineteenth Century

Summary The present contribution explores the extent of influence which French law had on the development of Germany’s commercial courts in the nineteenth century. Modern literature describes this influence as marginal, yet without further proof. The author takes this state of research as a starting point to compare the Napoleonic legislation on commercial courts with the German commercial court systems of the nineteenth century. However, the present contribution will start with an overview of the German legal situation at the end of the eighteenth century. This is followed by an examination of whether French law was transferred to Germany during the French occupation of large parts of Germany at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Against this background it is possible to fully analyse the influence which French law had on the further development of German commercial courts.

Les minorités dans la Déclaration Universelle des Droits de l’Homme, une absence délibérée

Summary The League of Nations established, in the interwar period, a legal regime for the protection of minorities which considered them as intermeditate groups between the State and the individuals. On the contrary, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, adopted in 1948 by the United Nations, assumed a radically individualistic point of view and did not include any mention to minority rights. The travaux préparatoires of the Universal Declaration suggest that the question of minorities caused strong tension among States and that, for this reason, they avoided its inclusion in the 1948 document.