''Analogia iuris'' is a method of

statutory interpretation Statutory interpretation is the process by which courts interpret and apply legislation. Some amount of interpretation is often necessary when a case involves a statute. Sometimes the words of a statute have a plain and a straightforward meani ...

in which gaps in existing law are filled by reference to overarching principles of law. ''Analogia iuris'' can be contrasted with ''

analogia legis Analogia legis, also known as statutory analogy or analogy from statute, is a method of statutory interpretation in which the legal principle applicable to a fact pattern not covered by a legal norm is determined by analogy (law), analogy to a norm ...

'', whereby legal consequences arise from the wording of statutes. In ''analogia iuris'', the court constructs a new, previously unarticulated general principle of law. A prominent example of ''analogia iuris'' occurred in the Dutch case of ''

Quint v. Te Poel Quint or Quints may refer to: __NOTOC__ In music * A type of sackbut, a musical instrument * A free-bass system for the accordion invented by Willard Palmer * A type of pipe organ stop Vehicles * Honda Quint, a subcompact car manufactured by Hon ...

'', decided by the

Dutch Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ( or simply ''Hoge Raad''), officially the High Council of the Netherlands, is the final court of appeal in civil, criminal and tax cases in the Netherlands, including Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Aruba. The ...

in 1959, in which homebuilders sought compensation from the owner of the property on which they had built homes, although the owner was not a party to the homebuilders' contract. The

Dutch Civil Code The ''Burgerlijk Wetboek'' (or BW) is the Civil Code of the Netherlands. Early versions were largely based on the Napoleonic Code. The Dutch Civil Code was substantively reformed in 1992. The Code deals with the rights of natural persons (Book 1) ...

of 1838, which was then in effect, contained clauses prohibiting specific examples of

unjust enrichment Restitution and unjust enrichment is the field of law relating to gains-based recovery. In contrast with damages (the law of compensation), restitution is a claim or remedy requiring a defendant to give up benefits wrongfully obtained. Liability ...

but did not contain any general prohibition on unjust enrichment. The court generalized from these existing provisions to create a new cause of action for unjust enrichment, allowing the builders to recover from the property owner. These methods of ''analogia iuris'' and ''analogia legis'' date to medieval times, when they were used to fill in the gaps in coverage of the

Codex of Justinian The Code of Justinian (, or ) is one part of the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'', the codification of Roman law ordered early in the 6th century AD by Justinian I, who was Eastern Roman emperor in Constantinople. Two other units, the Digest and the In ...

. However, the modern distinction between the two methods was first articulated in 1797 by the German jurist

Carl Ludwig Wilhelm von Grolmann Carl Ludwig Wilhelm Grolman, since 1812 von Grolmann, (* July 23, 1775 in Giessen; † February 14, 1829 in Darmstadt) was Jurist and Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existe ...

. Grolmann did not use the Latin terms, but referred to ''analogia iuris'' and ''analogia legis'' respectively as and . A more thorough justification of the distinction between these two forms of analogy was subsequently articulated by Carl Georg von Wächter.

Works cited

* * *

References

{{Reflist Analogy Legal interpretation

See also

Works cited

References