The Hoge Raad van Holland, Zeeland en West-Friesland (; usually translated in the literature as "High Court of Holland and Zeeland," though "Supreme Court" may better designate its function, and the literal translation is: "High Council of Holland and Zeeland") was the supreme court of the provinces of Holland and Zeeland in the Dutch Republic in the period 1582–1795. This court is considered a direct predecessor of the current Hoge Raad der Nederlanden (Supreme Court of the Netherlands). It played an important role in the formation of Roman-Dutch law, which still influences law in Southern Africa, through its jurisprudence.
History
The Great Council of Mechelen was the final Court of Appeal in the Habsburg Netherlands for all provincial High Courts. When, however, the rebellious provinces of Holland and Zeeland became physically separated from this court due to the difficulties for travellers during the military campaigns of the early Eighty Years' War after 1572, the practical lack of a possibility of appeal from sentences of the Hof van Holland (the provincial High Court for both provinces since 1428) was felt as a serious problem. This could only be solved after the Act of Abjuration of 1581 had formalised the deposition of the overlord of the Netherlands, Philip II of Spain. The States-General of the Netherlands decided to replace the Great Council in the provinces of the Union of Utrecht with its own "supra-provincial' court in 1582. But only the States of Holland accepted for the time being such a supreme court, which meant that its jurisdiction remained limited to that province. Only in 1587 did the States of Zeeland accede to the Supreme Court. No other provinces joined them. The court was dissolved together with the other institutions of the Dutch Republic after the Batavian Republic overthrew the old Republic in 1795.
The Instruction of 1582
The Instructie that the States-General drew up, promulgated on 31 May 1582 by William the Silent, to regulate the Supreme Court was in large part based on the Ordonnance of 1559 that governed the Great Council. This text, comprising 289 articles, would essentially remain in force during the entire history of the Court. The first 50 articles describe the jurisdiction and competence, composition and internal procedures of the court. Then follow the articles governing the work of the procureur-generaal (sollicitor-general) and advocaat-fiscaal (attorney-general) (art. LI-LXIII). Next follow articles regarding the griffier (Clerk of court) and secretaries (art. LXIV-XCIII). Then follow rules governing the competence and procedure of the court (XCIV-CIV), directly followed by rules about the way the bailiffs would execute the decrees of the court (CV-CXX). Then follow rules about the division of work between procureurs (sollicitors) and advocaten (attorneys, barristers), and the tariff for their services (CXXI-CLXVI), followed by rules about the procedures during trials (CLXVII-CXC). And finally details about the different legal remedies to be sought before the court were given (CXCI-CLXXXXIX).
Jurisdiction and competence
The organisation of the Judiciary that the Dutch Republic inherited from the Habsburg Netherlands was a patchwork of city and feudal courts on a local level, applying local law, like Schepenbanken, Baljuw's courts, and Heerlijkheid's courts that acted as courts of first instance in both criminal and civil cases. In general, appeal from criminal verdicts was not possible, so that the Appellate courts only took appeals of civil cases. The provincial High Court (the Hof van Holland) took these appeals, but also acted as court of first instance in a number of cases. The Supreme Court of Holland and Zeeland provided a possibility of (higher) appeal from cases decided in the provincial high court and the courts of the Hoogheemraadschappen (which handled certain land-use cases). It also had original jurisdiction in certain cases, e.g. commercial cases involving foreign merchants (and foreign law). Cases of Reversal (i.e. in which a final verdict was reviewed and possibly overturned) were reserved for the States-General which as Hoge Overheid or sovereign power in the Republic was the ultimate fount of justice (the States-General exceptionally also took politically sensitive cases, like the trial of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and Hugo Grotius in 1618 and the trial of the Amboyna judges).