De Friese Landsordonnantie van 1602

Abstract

On November 30 and the first of December 1602 a new body of law was officially promulgated by the Court of Friesland. It was an unique event and also the promulmulgated law, officialy named Statuten, Ordonnantien, ende Costumen van Frieslandt (Statutes, Ordinances and Customs of Friesland), was special. Nowhere else in the Low Countries a similar body of law was ever made. In more than 671 articles, dispersed over 89 titles and spread over four books, it stated which rules of law, promulgated in de 16th century, were still in force. When necessary these rules were brought up to date and new rules were introduced. Important was that this body law defined which rules of Roman (Civil) Law were valid in Friesland and which were not. The so called Ordinance of the country (Landsordonnantie) or Frisian Ordinance, as the promulgated law soon was named, stayed in force until she was replaced by her revision in 1723. This article gives a reconstruction of the way the Frisian Ordinance of 1602 came into being.