Pro Memorie - Volume 23, Issue 2, 2021

Abstract Apart from details about youth and family, the focus of this interview with Boudewijn Sirks is on his academic career. After studying law, theology and philosophy, he graduated with a DPhil on an aspect of Roman administrative law. He then specialised in Roman law in all its aspects and in almost all of its periods of application. An extension of this led him to research further in the legal history of the Dutch East Indies. Read More

Abstract In Belgium, the administration of justice with regard to labour law is in the hands of specialised courts, staffed by a combination of professional and lay judges. This has historical roots. An important step in the evolution of these courts is the establishment of the ‘werkrechtersraden van beroep’ (‘conseils de prud’hommes d’appel’). From their creation in 1913 until their reform in 1967, these coun Read More

Abstract In order to contribute to the existing gap in the Belgian legal history, the divorce jurisprudence from 1919 to 1922 of the court of first instance in Leuven was studied. The challenges resulting from the Great War were clearly visible in the examined judgments. First, there were regular references to the war and more specifically to the German enemy and the behaviour of the women who remained on the home Read More

Abstract Hermanus Noordkerk was a famous barrister in eighteenth-century Amsterdam. After his death multiple necrologies were written in which the general tone was laudatory. This article investigates the reliability of the necrologies by answering the question why Noordkerk became such a famous barrister. What qualities did he have that made him so memorable? It becomes clear that together with his virtuous character N Read More

Abstract In the Middle Ages, goods washed up on the beach or fished up from the sea were an important economic asset. The customs and rules that determined the status of these goods are referred to as the ‘law of wreck’ or ‘right of wreck’. Several competing interest groups were involved: the local inhabitants as salvagers, finders or beach combers; merchants, skippers and ship-owners; landowners and the prince. Read More