Ten Tortuous Years: An overview of Dutch tort law in the judgments of the Hoge Raad (Supreme Court) and of some lower courts, in the parliamentary history of the Burgerlijk Wetboek (Civil Code) and in jurisprudence

Abstract

During the last decade Dutch tort law has developed at such a monumental rate, that an overview might benefit readers that practice the law in other legal systems. These developments are not confined to the numerous judgments of the courts, but have resulted jointly from these decisions and from the activities of the legislature, i.e., (the judicial committees of) the Houses of Parliament conjointly with the Special Section for the New Civil Code of the Department of Justice. The work to renew the BW,1 commenced in 1947, involved a fundamental rethinking of the law of torts to be enacted in Book 6. This resulted in the publication of a proposal for Book 6, published in 1961, followed by a government draft bill in 1976. This draft bill was extensively discussed in the legal journals and it was later modified by a later draft bill. In all, it took Parliament some 15 years to finally amend and enact these drafts, together with those of Books 3, 5 and 7 (in part), and they finally entered into force in 1992.