Book Review: A Man of Principle: The Life and Legacy of JC de Wet / 'n Man van beginsel: Die Lewe en Nalatenskap van JC de Wet

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Date: 16 August 2019
• Published date: 16 August 2019
• Author: L Hawthorne
• Citation: (2014) 25 Stell LR 631
• Pages: 631-633

A Man of Principle: The Life and Legacy of JC de Wet / ’n Man van

Beginsel: Die Lewe en Nalatenskap van JC de Wet by J du Plessis &

G Lubbe (eds). Juta 2013. 478 pp. ISBN 9781485100751. Price R535.00

(hard cover)

Just over a century after JC de Wet’s birth this collection of essays was

published with the purpose of giving insight into this illustrious South African

lawyer, both as a person as well as to give a ret rospective evaluation of his

contribution to South Af rican legal science.

At the outset it should be kept in mind that a hundred years ago, no universities

had as yet been established. O nce created these institutions oper ated not only

with a limited numbe r of students, but with lim ited resources, such as pa rt

time lecture rs provided by both bar and side bar. Textbooks were written

by judges in the English tra dition; in other words both judges and t extbooks

followed the common-law model. Just before the outbreak of World War II,

De Wet spent a sabbatical in Leiden and visited Berlin and this encounter with

Germanic legal science det ermined the course of his scientic care er.

In the book under disc ussion seven eminent jurists devote thei r contributions

to the various aspe cts of De Wet’s life and person and succeed in keepi ng the

reader intereste d in the life and work of a very private per son who lived and

died during anot her era. The emphasis of the work is found in t he section

dealing with the law of contrac t when the contract law experts from the Cap e,

BOOK REVIEWS / BOEKRESENSIES 631

(2014) 25 Stell LR 631

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