Skip to Main Content

Southern Cross: Civil Law and Common Law in South Africa

Online ISBN:
9780191682162
Print ISBN:
9780198260875
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Southern Cross: Civil Law and Common Law in South Africa

Reinhard Zimmermann (ed.),
Reinhard Zimmermann
(ed.)

Professor of Private Law, Roman Law and Comparative Legal History at the Faculty of Law

University of Regensburg
Find on
Daniel Visser (ed.)
Daniel Visser
(ed.)

Professor of Private Law at the Faculty of Law

University of Cape Town
Find on
Published online:
22 March 2012
Published in print:
7 November 1996
Online ISBN:
9780191682162
Print ISBN:
9780198260875
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This book provides a history of some of the main institutions of South African private law and in so doing explores the process through which integration of the English common law and the continental civil law came about in that jurisdiction. It provides an insight into the way the process of harmonization of private law has occurred in South Africa and may occur within the European Union. By analysing the historical evolution of the most important institutions of the law of obligations and the law of property the book demonstrates how the two legal traditions have been accommodated within one system. The starting point for each chapter is the ‘pure’ Roman-Dutch law as it was transplanted to the Cape of Good Hope in the years following 1652. The analysis focuses on how the Roman-Dutch law has been preserved, changed, modified, or replaced in the course of the 19th century when the Cape became a British colony; and on what happened after the creation of the union of South Africa in 1910. Another value of the book is that it offers chapters by South African private lawyers reflecting on the history of their subjects. It therefore constitutes the first stage in the writing of a history of substantive private law in South Africa. Private law in South Africa did not develop in a vacuum but as part of a wider political and social process.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close