Wouter Snijders (26 May 1928 – 21 July 2020) was a Dutch judge and legal scholar. He was justice on the

Supreme Court of the Netherlands The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ( nl, Hoge Raad der Nederlanden 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 ...

between 1970 and 1986 and served as vice president from 1986 to 1998. Snijders also served as chair of the Court's civil chamber. He was the government's commissioner for the introduction of the new ''

Burgerlijk Wetboek 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) ...

'' between 1971 and 1995. Snijders is credited as being one of the most influential civil law scholars of the Netherlands.

Career

Snijders was born on 26 May 1928 in

Hilversum Hilversum () is a city and municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is the largest urban centre in that area. It is surrounded by heathland, woods, meadows, lakes, and smaller towns. Hil ...

. He started studying medicine, but did not like having to wake up early for classes. He subsequently contemplated studying history, but his previous education did not give him the needed qualifications and he thus decided to study law. Snijders remained an uninterested student, only being inspired by professor . He graduated with a law degree from the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other bein ...

in 1953. During his studies he performed his military service for 1.5 years in the Dutch East Indies. Snijders became a lawyer and later a judge in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. From this latter position he was detached to the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

in 1965, to start working on a new civil code of the Netherlands. On 17 July 1970 he was appointed to the

, but only took up the work associated with the position in September 1976, due to his work on the new civil code. In the 1980s he became chair of the civil chamber of the Supreme Court. On 28 February 1986 he became vice president of the court. Although being offered the position of president of the court twice, he declined each time. He retired on 1 June 1998. From 2000 to 2002 he was a professor in extraordinary service at the

, with a teaching assignment in private law. In 1971 Snijders was appointed government's commissioner for the books 3,5 and 6 of the new ''

'' (Dutch Civil Law Code), dealing with property law and the

law of obligations The law of obligations is one branch of private law under the civil law legal system and so-called "mixed" legal systems. It is the body of rules that organizes and regulates the rights and duties arising between individuals. The specific rights a ...

. In 1995, three years after the introduction of the new ''Burgerlijk Wetboek'', Snijders laid down his position as government's commissioner. Due to the combination of being chair of the civil chamber of the Supreme Court and the position as government's commissioner for the new civil law code, German law scholar

Wolfgang Ernst Wolfgang Hermann Wernher Ernst (born 1956 in Bonn, Germany) is a German lawyer and Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford. Life Ernst studied from 1976 to 1980 at the University of Bonn and the Goethe University Frankfurt ...

called Snijders: "the most powerful and influential (Dutch) lawyer in civil law matters for nearly two decades". Snijders is regarded as having strengthened the Dutch judicial liability system, together with Auke Bloembergen. During the 1990s he helped Russian colleagues with the rewriting of the

Civil Code of Russia The Civil Code of the Russian Federation (russian: Гражданский кодекс Российской Федерации, frequently abbreviated 'ГК РФ') is the prime source of civil law for the Russian Federation. The Russian Civil Law s ...

. Snijders was elected member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 1979. He received an honorary doctorate from Leiden University in 1980. He died on 21 July 2020 in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snijders, Wouter 1928 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Dutch judges Dutch legal scholars Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Hilversum Supreme Court of the Netherlands justices University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam Vice Presidents of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands