The Council of Brabant was the highest
law court in the historic
Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established in 1183. It developed from the Landgraviate of Brabant and formed the heart of the historic Low Countries, part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1430 and of the Habsburg ...
. It was presided over by the
Chancellor of Brabant. One of its functions was to determine that new legislation was not contrary to the rights and liberties established in the
Joyous Entry.
The
Belgian Federal Parliament
The Federal Parliament is the bicameral parliament of Belgium. It consists of the Chamber of Representatives ( Dutch: , french: Chambre des Représentants, german: Abgeordnetenkammer) and the Senate ( Dutch: , french: Sénat, german: Senat). It s ...
now sits in the building that was designed in the late 18th century by
Gilles-Barnabé Guimard as the Palace of the Council of Brabant.
Abolition
On 1 January 1787,
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II (German: Josef Benedikt Anton Michael Adam; English: ''Joseph Benedict Anthony Michael Adam''; 13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 29, 1780 unt ...
, decreed the abolition of the Council of Brabant, which had resisted his reforming measures as conflicting with the established liberties of the duchy, and ordered that it be replaced with a number of tribunals to be newly instituted. On 20 April the Council nullified this decree as contrary to the liberties of the duchy and ordered its members to give no heed to it. At the end of May 1787 the government in Brussels postponed the implementation of judicial innovations, and in September abolished the decree. On 18 June 1789 Joseph II's representative in Brussels,
Ferdinand von Trauttmansdorff, declared that the powers of the Council of Brabant would henceforth be exercised by the
Great Council of Mechelen. This government coup was one of the direct causes of the
Brabant Revolution.
[D. De Stobbeleir, "Verzet tegen de hervormingen van Jozef II en de staatsgreep van 18 juni 1789", tr. M. Erkens, in ''Doorheen de nationale geschiedenis'' (State Archives in Belgium, Brussels, 1980), pp. 262–267.] The Council was finally abolished under the
French occupation of 1794–1814.
Notable members
*
Willem Van der Tanerijen Willem Van der Tanerijen (died 1499) was a jurist in the Duchy of Brabant (the territory of which is now divided between the Netherlands and Belgium) whose manuscript treatise on the procedures of the major courts of the duchy is an important sou ...
(died 1499)
*
Cornelius Wytfliet (1555–1597)
*
Petrus Peckius the Younger (1562–1625)
*
Ferdinand van Boisschot (died 1649)
*
Guillaume Wittouck (1749–1829)
See also
*
Chancellor of Brabant
References
Further reading
*
Arthur Gaillard
Arthur Gaillard (1847–1912) was the head of the State Archives in Belgium from 1904 until his death. His career as an archivist began in 1872 and he worked his way up through all the ranks of the service to become its head. He instituted the pr ...
, ''Le Conseil de Brabant: Histoire – Organisation – Procédure'', 3 vols. (Brussels, 1898–1902).
{{Authority control
Legal history of Belgium
Legal history of the Netherlands
Defunct courts
Duchy of Brabant
1430s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
1430 establishments in Europe
1794 disestablishments in the Austrian Netherlands
1430s establishments in the Burgundian Netherlands
Br
Courts and tribunals established in 1430
Courts and tribunals disestablished in 1794