Councils in matters in respect of which the power to make ordinances is reserved or delegated to them (s. 135).
The sources of the Roman-Dutch Law. The last portion of this Introduction relates to the authentic sources of the Roman-Dutch Law, which are also the primary sources of our knowledge of that system. These are:
- Treatises.
- Statute Law.
- Decisions of the Courts.
- Opinions of Jurists.
- Custom.
i. Treatises. I. Treatises.[1] The numerous works of the Dutch jurists, written in Dutch and Latin at various dates from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, are cited to-day as authoritative statements of the law with which they deal. A modern text-book has no such authority. The rules therein expressed are merely opinions which Counsel in addressing the Court may, if he pleases, incorporate in his argument, but which have no independent claim to attention, however eminent their author. The works of the older writers, on the contrary, have a weight comparable to that of the decisions of the Courts, or of the limited number of ‘books of authority’ in English Law. They are authentic statements of the law itself, and, as such, hold their ground until shown to be wrong. Of course the opinions of these writers are very often at variance amongst themselves or bear an archaic stamp. In such event the Courts will adopt the view which is supported by authority or most consonant with reason; or will decline to follow any, if all of the competing doctrines seem to be out of harmony with the conditions of modern life; or, again, will take a rule of the old law, and explain or modify it in the sense demanded by convenience.
- ↑ For a bibliography of Roman-Dutch law books see The Commercial Laws of the World, vol. xv—South Africa—pp. 14 ff.
