Sources of commercial law in the Dutch Republic and Kingdom

Conference item

In his Quaestiones Juris Publici I.21, Bijnkershoek states at the beginning: In regnis et reipublicis, quae commerciis exercendis student, contractu assecurationis nullus hodie est frequentior, excepta emptione venditione, locatione conductione. ‘In kingdoms and republics which are keen on exercising trade, there is with the exception of sale and hire no contract more in use than that of insurance.’ After giving a historical outline of how this contract was developed, he deals with the question of whether one may insure enemies’ cargo. That is understandable in the context of the Quaestiones Juris Publici, which are mainly on war and the legal complications for belligerents (including letters of marque and reprisal), but one wonders how the legal construction was. In his Quaestiones Juris Privati, published posthumously in 1744, the entire fourth part is dedicated to problems of insurance law. Thus Bijnkershoek identifies three contracts as being specific for commerce: sale, hire (and contracting), and insurance. He distinguishes these within the context of the general body of private law, and he was no exception in this respect.

Authors: Sirks, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Brill
• Host title: Understanding the Sources of Early Modern and Modern Commercial Law: Courts, Statutes, Contracts, and Legal Scholarship
• Pages: 166–184
• Series: Studies in the History of Private Law
• Series number: 25/14
• Publication date: 2018-02-28
• Acceptance date: 2016-12-06
• DOI: 10.1163/9789004363144_009
• ISSN: 1874-1793
• EISBN: 978-90-04-36314-4
• ISBN: 978-90-04-36045-7
• Language: English