Welcome to Low Countries Law, the site that specialises in sources for the history of law.

This site was developed from the project "Historical Dictionary of Dutch Legal Terminology" and will be of relevance to anyone who needs to consult historical legal documents.

Legal texts and sources shed light on many aspects of society:

Legislative texts standardise norms of social behaviour; Common law reflects the values of the local community; legislators challenge accepted legal norms and revitalise legal thought. This is also reflected in the law-historical sources available to us. Local Governments expanded their power base through privileges and liberties, but were kept in check with ordinances and decrees. The government and judiciary organised the daily functioning of society according to the powers bestowed on them. Through legislation speaks the voice of the ordinary man in the street, the feudal lord and his estate, the merchant in hard times, the monastery and the city...

Old legal sources don't just contain a treasure of historical facts; they are also rich in legislative and linguistic points of interest.

With this in mind, we have tried to offer the user as wide a spectrum of law-historical information as possible.

• a selection of law-historical sources
• an overview of Flemish legal historians
• bulletins and events in the field
• recent publications
• references to other relevant sites
• historical dictionaries and glossaries of Dutch legal terminology

We apologise for not offering an English version of these pages.

Do you have any information relevant to this site? Or do you have questions or comments on the site's contents? Please contact us via email or through the usual channels.

*Historical Dictionary of Dutch Legal Terminology (HDDLT)

This project was set up in 1995 as an initiative of the Belgian Committee for Legal History. Its goal was the realisation of a comprehensive law-historical lexicon, expounding legal terminology used in Dutch-speaking areas from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century.

The dictionary will be produced by means of artificial intelligence, facilitating a new and systematic treatment of old legal sources. The first step will be the digitalisation of existing law-historical glossaries and lexicons, and cross-referencing them by key word. These key words will then form the basis of a study into their application in justice administration, jurisprudence, legislation and common law. The various meanings of every term will be clarified in the dictionary through the use of quotes and passages from the sources treated.

NIWI will assist in the automisation and treatment of the sources.

The HDDLT-project is funded by the FWO and is based at the Royal Academy of Sciences, Arts and Fine Arts of Belgium.

The project leaders are Prof. van Caenegem, Chairman of the Committee of Legal History, and Prof. J Monballyu. Dr. C. Verhas conducts the research.