PODCAST · education

1.2

1.2 Background, sources and current development 1.2.1 Sources of traditional law of things Traditionally the background and sources of the law of things were described within the restricted ambit of Roman-Dutch private law. In this context the sources of the law of things were described as (mainly Roman-Dutch) common law, complemented by South African legislation and case law. Roman-Dutch common law is found in the writings of the great Roman-Dutch lawyers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, such as Grotius, Voet and Van der Linden. Legislation consists of statutes or Acts promulgated by, especially, the national legislature or parliament. Examples of pre-1994 legislation which are important to the law of property are the Sectional Titles Act 95 of 1986 and the Security by Means of Movable Property Act 57 of 1993; while perhaps the most important new legislation is the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996. Case law (or precedent) consists of the a