Dutch law

Eind januari vierde privaatrechtelijk Nederland drie verjaardagen: op 25 januari was het negentig jaar geleden dat de Hoge Raad het arrest Bos/Heineken  (ook bekend als Brouwerij I) wees, op 30 januari vierde Quint/Te Poel  zijn zestigste verjaardag en op 31 januari was het arrest Lindenbaum/Cohen  maar liefst honderd jaar oud. Met name het eeuwfeest van Lindenbaum/Cohen was reden voor een feestje: de Universiteit Leiden organiseerde een symposium erover en de Hoge Raad heeft zelfs een mini-opera – getiteld ‘NJ 1919, p. 161’, naar de vindplaats in de Nederlandse Jurisprudentie – gecomponeerd. In dit artikel zal ik ingaan op wat vooraf ging aan Lindenbaum/Cohen, en dan met name op de legistische en antilegistische stromingen in Nederland in de negentiend eeuw.

One who has led another to act in reasonable reliance on his representations of fact cannot afterwards in litigation between the two deny the truth of the representations.  Said differently: if an unambiguous promise is made in circumstances calculated to induce reliance, and it does so, the promisee if hurt as a result can recover damages. 

This action, called 'promissory estoppel' has seen wide application in case law ever since its appearance under § 90 in the First Restatement on Contract. Its categorization and understanding as a legal institution have been frustratingly difficult despite this however, owing to the volatility it introduces to common law contract doctrine. The common law separates the sources of its obligations, usually into ‘contract’ and ‘tort’; but also between ‘law’ and ‘equity’. For the late Grant Gilmore, promissory estoppel was the pallbearer in the apparent death of contract, which he had predicted in his eponymous work in the 1970’s. Though his grand proclamations have rung hollow, he is right that the present coordinates of promissory estoppel are elusive. Questions haunt the literature in Gilmore’s wake. My research question is thus:

Has § 90’s ‘detrimental reliance’ become its own source of obligations, decoupled from either contract or tort? If so, what is the nature of its source of obligations and what effects does this have on litigation?

This article focuses on the legality of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the Netherlands. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are allowed in certain cases, but there is no consensus with respect to the extent of the situations in which physicians should not be prosecuted. I argue that the individual, and, more specifically, his suffering, should be the focal point, and that the present legislation falls short in this respect; no solution can as yet be offered to individuals whose suffering cannot be resolved through medical means and which cannot be subsumed under the terms the law specifies.

This article aims at giving a comparative overview regarding the reforms of private companies’ legal capital regime throughout the whole European Union implemented during last ten years.
This essentially results in the existence of two basic models of intervention; on the one hand, general “closed” company type was changed by requiring a lower minimum legal capital threshold; on the other hand, new private company sub-versions were developed in order to make the access to liability limitation easier and cheaper.

J. Doomen and A. Ellian (eds.), De strijd van gelijkheid en vrijheid. The Hague: Boom Juridische Uitgevers, 2015. This study inquires the extent of freedom of expression in the present era. I wrote a chapter (pp. 107-123) and co-authored the general introduction (pp. 9-24).

On the 12th of February 2015, the Dutch House of Representatives adopted the Copyright Contract Act (‘CCA’). The proposed legislation introduces a number of author-protective rules on copyright contracts into the Dutch Copyright Act (‘DCA’). According to observers, the new statutory provisions will have “profound consequences” for contractual practices in Dutch copyright-based industries. This article gives a brief overview of the potential effects that the CCA may have on Free and Open Source Software (‘FOSS’) and Creative Commons (‘CC’) licensing models as alternative models of copyright exploitation. Given that FOSS and CC licensing models flourish as the result of the parties’ freedom to contract, the extent to which these models may be adversely affected through the imposition of mandatory provisions as found in the CCA is an important question to consider and one which is all too easily overshadowed by the assumption that author-protective rules, by their very nature, are universally beneficial for all authors.

M. Bruning & D. Zlotnik, 'Cooperation and the Right of Child Abuse Victims to Protection and Health: Lessons from the Netherlands. Published in 'Children's Rights in Health Care' (Editors: J. H. H. M. Dorscheidt & J. .E Doek), Brill Nijhoff.

اتانازی به بیمار فرصت می دهد که بدون تحمل درد و رنج مداوم از ادامه زندگی انصراف دهد.
اینکه اتانازی را از نگاه قانون ایران و منطبق با نظام حقوقی و مذهبی ایران مجوز قتل بدانیم، یا
خودکشی، یا معاونت در جرم، یا هیچکدام موضوعی است که باید بعدها بدان پرداخت. آنچه
قابل تامل است آنکه در حال حاضر یک ایرانی می تواند با اقامت در قلمرو سرزمینی که اتانازی
را طبق شرایطی مجاز می داند، مشمول اتانازی شود. مسلم است علیرغم اینکه در قانون ایران
جایگاهی برای خودکشی مشخص نشده، آمار خودکشی به قصد پایان دادن به تألم روحی و
جسمی کم نیست. ارزیابی امکان در مسیر قانونی و شرعی انداختن برخی موارد، که در آن
پزشک ضرورت اعمال اتانازی را تشخیص دهد؛ موضوعی نیست که بتوان به صورت انتزاعی و
بدون در نظر گرفتن شرع و عرف جامعه و ضرورتهای پزشکی مورد بررسی قرار داد.
در این مقاله اتانازی صرفا مورد بررسی تطبیقی قرار گرفته است. هدف این نوشتار پرداختن به
بایدها و نبایدها نیست، بلکه جایگاه حقوقی اتانازی در حقوق ایران و هلند مورد مداقه قرار می
گیرد. ادامه بحث، در صورت ضرورت، به محافل و بخشهای تخصصی تر واگذار می شود.

Byzantine Ms. of the Digest, the Code and the Institutes. The most precise version of the Justinianic Roman law that we have. Was probably "rediscovered" in Pisa in the XI century. Removed to Florence in 1406. In the Middle Ages, very few people were allowed access to it. Only became the object of careful research in the XV-XVI century.

In een aantal gevallen hebben alle werknemers dezelfde belangen. Dat geldt tegenwoordig niet voor het ontslagrecht. Werknemers met een vaste arbeidsovereenkomst profiteren van een rigide ontslagrecht, maar dit gaat ten koste van de positie van werknemers met een flexibele arbeidsovereenkomst. De recente Wet werk en zekerheid brengt daarin geen verschil. Door de wijziging van de ketenbepaling zijn deze tegenstellingen zelfs verscherpt. Een belangrijke reden waarom het voorstel om het ontslagrecht te versoepelen niet is gerealiseerd ligt in de totstandkoming van het Sociaal Akkoord 2013, waarin vooral met de belangen van de werknemers met een vaste arbeidsovereenkomst rekening gehouden is. De belangen van alle partijen kunnen alleen worden behartigd door de rigiditeit van het ontslagrecht te bestrijden.

This paper analyses the possibility of acquisitive prescription (adverse possession) of government property in Belgian, French, English and Dutch law. It analyses the notion of government property, which comprises two categories: public domain (which is protected against usurpations) and private domain (which does not, generally speaking, differ from private property). It then analyses if the dogma of the impossibility of acquisitive prescription of public domain is correct, concluding that this dogma has to be nuanced, as acquisitive prescription is sometimes possible.

An article, written in Dutch, which appeared in the journal (Marckrant) of study society Frederik van der Marck, for Constitutional and Administrative Law.

Cite: Berendsen, N.L., 'Hoofdpijndossier: Zwarte Piet’, Marckrant, Vol. 21, No. 3, July 2014, Groningen, pp.15-21.

Abstract:

about the controversy regarding the figure of 'Zwarte Piet' (Black Pete) in the Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas. This article analyses case Rb Amsterdam, 03-07-2014, AMS 13/6350, in which the district (administrative) court of Amsterdam rules that the appearance of Black Pete leads to stereotyping of black people and that the mayor of Amsterdam should have considered the interests of black people in the process of granting permission for the Sinterklaas festivities. In a comment on the judgement, the author questions the gravity of the ruling and the general effectiveness of banning a fictitious personality from a children's holiday.

In het vorige nummer beschreef Corné hoe de staatscommissie parlementair stelsel op twee gedachten hinkt: de commissie doet het voorkomen alsof zij allerlei radicaal nieuwe voorstellen doet die elk een grote verbetering voor het parlementaire stelsel met zich meebrengen, terwijl zij tegelijkertijd een aantal relatief beperkte wijzigingen voorstelt die we enkele tientallen jaren al hebben gehoord. In deze aflevering van de NOVUM wil ik een ander onderdeel van het rapport van de staatscommissie onder de loep nemen, namelijk het stuk waarin de commissie ingaat op de wenselijkheid van constitutionele toetsing.

Both the Netherlands and South Korea have statutory severance pay that is similar in form(ula) but differs in purpose. Dutch severance pay originated as compensation for unfair dismissal calculated by a judge on a case-by-case basis.
This became more standardized, resulting in a formula that is nearly identical to Korea’s, although the reason for termination is still a factor in Dutch severance pay. While the Netherlands has been standardizing severance pay, Korea has been trying to replace it with a retirement pension plan system. The reason why one jurisdiction tries to abolish an institution that another jurisdiction is developing lies in severance pay’s perceived purpose. Dutch severance pay has originally been conceptualized as dismissal protection. Korean severance pay has been instituted in the 1960s as a substitute for retirement benefits. This research argues that instead of its social function the perceived purpose of severance pay – what it ought to do – has been leading in the reform debate.
The central question this research tries to answer is, therefore, how severance pay’s perceived purpose has influenced its development in the Netherlands and South Korea. This is an important question because the initial choice for a certain policy (change) causes intellectual path dependence. After giving a functional definition of severance pay, this paper compares severance pay law in Korea and the Netherlands based on an analysis of its historical development.
It concludes that the perceived purpose was one major factor limiting the way legal scholars and policymakers approached the reform debate, especially when it came to the choice for alternatives to consider and legal systems to compare.

Throughout the Great War, the Netherlands tried frantically to remain a neutral nation between the warring Central Powers and the Entente Forces. Notwithstanding its neutrality, the war left distinct marks on Dutch society and economy. This article argues that it also left marks, both temporary and lasting, on Dutch contract law. Never since the introduction of the Dutch Civil Code in 1838 had the Netherlands been exposed to such a disruptive international conflict as the Great War. Therefore, the war presented the first systemic test of Civil Code doctrines such as impossibility and force majeure. As far as these doctrines are concerned, some have argued that the Great War was no different from other, less disruptive economic events. However, on closer inspection one may find that the application of private law doctrines under war conditions seemed to reflect the Dutch neutrality doctrine. The courts strictly construed and enforced contracts, mostly rejected defences involving 'impossibility' and vis maior, and often held that contracting parties had knowingly assumed the risks associated with contracting during a war. Moreover, the Great War marked the end of nineteenth-century laissez-faire notions in regulatory policies, which in turn caused a gradual shift in balance between public law and freedom of contract. In hindsight, the war can also be regarded as the turning point in Dutch doctrinal thinking on the respective roles of and the relationship between force majeure, unforeseen circumstances and good faith. Another way of looking at judicial application of contract law during the Great War is to consider this as an extension of the Dutch neutrality doctrine. Both viewpoints are explored in this article.

J.M. VELDHUIS * Wel verschenen in de procedure, maar niet opgemerkt. Dat blijkt -ook voor rechtbanken -vaak een lastige situatie. Het lijkt erop dat uit het oog is verloren wat de grondslag is voor het rechtsmiddel verzet, namelijk: het niet verschijnen van de gedaagde partij. Ben je wel verschenen, dan staat het rechtsmiddel hoger beroep tot je beschikking. Dit laatste geldt ook als je wel bent verschenen, maar er is ten onrechte een verstekvonnis gewezen. Ook in dit laatste geval adviseren rechtbanken geregeld om in verzet te gaan. Dat is onjuist. Met de korte termijnen van verzet en hoger beroep is een verkeerde keuze vaak fataal.