Civil Law is a provision that regulates the rights and interests of individuals within the community. The legal tradition in the European lands (civil law) recognizes the division of the law into two namely public law and private law or civil law. In the Anglo-Saxon system (common law) no such division is known.
History of Private Law
The Dutch civil law was derived from French civil law which was drafted under Roman law 'Corpus Juris Civilis' which at that time was regarded as the most perfect law. Privileges in force in France are contained in two codices called (civil law) and Code de Commerce (commercial law). When France controlled the Netherlands (1806-1813), both codifications were enforced in the Netherlands and continued to be used until 24 years after the Dutch independence from France (1813).
In 1814 the Dutch began to compile the Civil Code (Civil) or the Civil Code of the Netherlands, based on the codification of Dutch law made by J.M. Kemper is called Ontwerp Kemper. However, unfortunately Kemper died in 1824 before completing his task and continued by Nicolai who served as Chairman of the Belgian High Court.
The Dutch desire was realized on July 6, 1830 with the formation of two codifications that were enacted on October 1, 1838 because there has been a rebellion in Belgium, namely:
- BW [or the Dutch Civil Code Law).
- WvK [or known as the Book of Commercial Law]
According to J. Van Kan, the codification of BW is a translation of the Civil Code that was copied from French into Dutch national language.