Southern Cross
In the modern European debate, continental European civil law and English common law are understood as deeply conflicting traditions that impede a harmonisation or standardisation of private law. Yet South African private law witnessed exactly these two traditions grow together into a single unified private law during the course of the 19th century. This project has examined in detail how the development of a mixed legal system took place. Thereby, limited to the key fields of obligations and property law, an in-depth doctrinal history of South African law is being offered for the first time. Simultaneously, historic experiences with respect to the merger of civil law and common law are being made available for the European debate. The project builds upon Robert Feenstra and Reinhard Zimmermann’s publication, Das römisch-holländische Recht: Forstschritte des Zivilrechts im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin: Duncker and Humbot, 1992, which concerns the initial absorption of Roman-Dutch law in South Africa. Southern Cross: Civil Law and Common Law in South Africa, Reinhard Zimmermann, Daniel Visser (eds.), 1996, has been simultaneously released by Oxford University Press and by Juta & Co. in a South African edition. It contains the following contributions.Eduard Fagan (Cape Town/Regensburg): Roman-Dutch Law in its South African Historical Context
T. W. Bennett (Cape Town): African Land - A History of Dispossession
Stephen D. Girvin (Nottingham): The Architects of the Mixed Legal System
H. J. Erasmus (Stellenbosch): The Interaction of Substantive Law and Procedure
Dale Hutchison (Cape Town): Contract Formation
Carole Lewis (Johannesburg): Interpretation of Contracts
Reinhard Zimmermann (Regensburg): Good Faith and Equity
Gerhard Lubbe (Stellenbosch): Voidable Contracts
Alfred Cockrell (Cape Town): Breach of Contract
David J. Joubert (Pretoria): Agency and Stipulatio Alteri
Jan Lotz (Pretoria): Purchase and Sale
Barney Jordaan (Stellenbosch): Employment Relations
C. F. Forsyth (Cambridge) : Suretyship
J. P. van Niekerk (Pretoria): Insurance Law
Charl Hugo (Stellenbosch): Negotiable Instruments
Daniel Visser (Cape Town): Unjustified Enrichment
Annél van Aswegen (Pretoria): Aquilian Liability I (Nineteenth Century)
Dale Hutchison (Cape Town): Aquilian Liability II (Twentieth Century)
Jonathan M. Burchell (Pietermaritzburg): The Protection of Personality Rights
J. R. L. Milton (Pietermaritzburg): Ownership
C. G. van der Merwe (Stellenbosch): Original Acquisition of Ownership
David L. Carey Miller (Aberdeen): Transfer of Ownership
Derek van der Merwe (Johannesburg): Neighbour Law
M. J. de Waal (Stellenbosch): Servitudes
Duard Kleyn (Pretoria): Possession
Tony Honoré (Oxford): Trust
For further comparisons of the summaries of results from “Southern Cross” and their evaluation before the backdrop of European legal standardisation, see Reinhard Zimmermann, Gemeines Recht heute: Das Kreuz des Südens, in: Jörn Eckert (ed.), Der praktische Nutzen der Rechtsgeschichte, 2003 pp. 601-627; Reinhard Zimmermann, Paul Farlam, The Republic of South Africa, in: Vernon V. Palmer (ed.), Mixed Jurisdictions Worldwide: The Third Legal Family, Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 83-144; Reinhard Zimmermann, Good Faith and Equity in Modern Roman-Dutch Contract Law, in: Alfredo Mordechai Rabello (ed.), Aequitas and Equity in Civil Law and Mixed Jurisdictions, 1997 pp. 517-582.