Johannes Voet, also known as John Voet (3 October 1647 – 11 September 1713), was a Dutchjurist whose work remains highly influential in modern Roman-Dutch law.[1]
Voet was born in Utrecht, the son of Paulus Voet, who was the son of famous theologianGisbertus Voetius. He probably studied in Utrecht, after which he became a professor in Herborn. In 1673 he was made professor of law at Utrecht University. From 1680 to his death he was a professor and the chair of law at Leiden, being twice elected as rector.[1]:327 He was a deacon in the Dutch Reformed Church and later worked for the Church as an accountant. He died in Utrecht.[2]
Work
Voet's most famous work is his Commentarius ad Pandectas (i.e. Commentary on the Digest) (1698). Unlike other jurists of his day, Voet's Commentary on the Digest was not a mere academic treatise but also an attempt to show how that law applied day-to-day in practice. While the Commentary shows signs of legal humanism, it may also be considered a Dutch form of Usus modernus Pandectarum.
Unlike the work of Hugo Grotius and Simon van Leeuwen with which Voet's Commentary has been compared, Voet, as a teacher of law, wrote in Latin and not Dutch, as Latin at the time was the teaching language. Like Grotius, Voet relied upon the theory of natural law as the basis for his systematization of the law.[1]:329
Compendiem juris adjectis differentiis Civilis et Canonici (1682)
Commentarius ad pandectas: in quo, praeter Romani juris principia ac controversias illustriores, jus etiam hodiernum et praecipuae fori quaestiones excutiuntur[3]
De Usufructu (1704)
Elementa juris secundum ordinem Inst. Justiniani (translated into Dutch as De Beginzels des Rechts, that is, The Principles of the Law) – a commentary on the Institutes of Justinian.
Voetstoots denotes 'a sale in which the vendor is freed from all responsibility for the condition of the goods being sold', or 'without responsibility for the condition of the goods sold'.[4]
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