Pro Memorie - Volume 24, Issue 2, 2022

Abstract The members of the Holy Roman Empire (emperor, monarchs, classes and cities) gave in 1530 order to the Imperial Chamber Court (the Reichskammergericht) not to accept appeals in cases of capital punishment. The traditional injunction of these appeals should be respected. The initiative was taken by the prince-bishop of Liege, Everardus cardinal Van der Mark. But was there really since 1495 in the country of Lie Read More

Abstract In the case Harderwijk vs Hagendoorn (verdict 30 July 1810), Hagendoorn’s suitcase was stolen during its transport by Harderwijk from Austerlitz to Utrecht. The suitcase had been fixed with ropes to the coach. The question was whether the carrier had exercised sufficient care by that. Harderwijk based the level of care of his son, who had transported the suitcase, on the contract of mandate: it required normal car Read More

Abstract Between 1643 and 1713, many cities in the economic core areas of the Dutch Republic introduced local ordinances concerning desolate boedels, insolvent estates. This article compares the contents of a substantial number of such ordinances and explains these legal innovations as part of broader patterns of institutional change. The introduction of majority compositions in this period substantially improved the chan Read More

Abstract The law of neutrality evolved from 1776 to 1870, but not in a linear way. Enlightenment saw neutrality as an autonomous choice of a sovereign polity. The First League of Armed Neutrality (1780) and the Declaration of Paris (1856) can be seen as landmarks in the rise of the free ships/free goods-principle and the promotion of free trade. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars brought a regression. The Bri Read More

Abstract Even after 1867, date of the new Belgian criminal code, several child murders were prosecuted before the Court of Assizes of West Flanders. The victims were usually children out of wedlock and the perpetrators usually their unmarried mothers. Although the criminal law still allowed this, none of those perpetrators were punished with the death penalty. A life-long forced labour was then the highest punishmen Read More