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In 1667, the southern part of the Spanish Low country was conquered by Louis XIV, and came under French sovereignty. In the same year, a high court of justice was created in Tournay, not only as an expression of sovereignty in the newly conquered territory, but also as a guarantee of local customs. Twenty years later it became known as "Parlement". Several judges of the court took private notes of the court's practice and in the late 17^th and the first years of the 18th century, collections of court decisions were also printed. They can now provide information about different sources of law; about the relations between local customary law, royal statutes and ius commune; and about the interpretation of law by the Flemish court. Interpretation could then act in two ways: on one hand, as a legal and political instrument to preserve local customary law from foreign influence (i.e. French Law); and on the other hand, as a way to pursue royal centralization and a more uniformed law, paving the way to codification.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-1506-6_3

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