History
From ancient times the low lands that became the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (see also Dutch Republic) were ruled by a patchwork of customary law with a (depending on the region) more or less prevalent role for roman law as a secondary source of law. This period of customary law ended in 1806 when the Dutch Republic ceased to exist and the Kingdom of Holland was created under French rule (King Louis Bonaparte, third brother of Napoleon Bonaparte).
With French rule came a French way of running the state: a centrally led and efficiently operating civil service and a new system of positive law: the Code Civil. After the defeat of Napoleon a new Dutch state was created comprising the Netherlands and Belgium. The Dutch did not want to go back to the days of legal diversity (local customary laws) and a project was started to create a Dutch civil law book. After the breakaway of Belgium in 1830 the new law book (which had not yet entered force) had to be overhauled again to be cleansed of "Belgian influences". The new law book gained force of law in 1838.
After the second world war professor E.M. Meijers was commissioned to create a new civil law book. After his death in 1954 work on the new law book continued but the process was slowed down considerably. Nevertheless his "new civil law book" entered force in various parts over a period spanning from 1970 to 1992. Book 4 (inheritance law) was overhauled in 2003.
Read more about this topic: Dutch Law
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