Digitization
The year 2016 marked seventy years since the death of Paul Scholten. All of his works would enter in 2016 the public domain. In view of this the Digital Paul Scholten Project (DPSP project) was initiated in 2010 to digitize all Scholten’s legal philosophical works and to make an English translation of the most quoted part of it: the first chapter of Algemeen Deel. From 2010 until 2020 the project was supported by the faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam. In 2020 the project was finalized with the publication of the English translation of the first chapter of Algemeen Deel in DPSP Annual, Volume 1 (2020) and a print edition: DPSP Special Issues no 1. In 2021 the project was carried on by the initiator as an independent project. In DPSP Annual, Volume 2 (2021) the already existing Indonesian and French translations of Algemeen Deel were published. From 2022 on the focus is set on the English translation of Scholten’s collected papers.
Main legal philosophical sources
The main sources for Paul Scholten’s legal philosophical work are:
- Algemeen Deel (First chapter translated in English: General Method of Private Law, English Translation of the First Chapter of the General Volume of the Asser-serie on Dutch Civil Law, Written by Paul Scholten) published by W.E.J. Tjeenk Willink, Zwolle, 1931 en 1934.
- Verzamelde Geschriften (Four volumes of collected papers) edited by G.J. Scholten, Y. Scholten and M.H. Bregstein, published by W.E.J.Tjeenk Willink, Zwolle, in the period 1949-1954. Reprinted in 1980 in two volumes with each two parts.
Available in Open Access
DPSP has scanned Algemeen Deel and the Verzamelde Geschriften and transformed them into PDF and Word using OCR (optical character recognition). They are available now on this website: Algemeen Deel and Verzamelde Geschriften: Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, Volume 4. It is also possible to download per article.
Bibliography
Next to his legal philosophical work, Paul Scholten also published a great deal of work on Dutch civil law. See for this the sortable Bibliography on the Dutch version of this website.
English Translation of the Collected Papers
The decision to continue DPSP after 2020 entails the decision to continue translating Scholten’s legal philosophical works into English language, particularly the articles assembled in his Collected Writings, Part 1 and 2. These articles are more personal and partly of a considerably older date than the ‘Algemeen Deel’. An adaptation to modern spelling, grammar and wording is therefore even more needed for these articles than it was for the Algemeen Deel.
The English translations of the collected papers will be posted online as concept in combination with the adapted and the original Dutch versions. Language editing will take place when financially possible. After language editing has taken place, the translations will be published in DPSP Annual in combination with a reissue of the adapted Dutch text.
French and Indonesian Translations
In 1954 the first chapter of Algemeen Deel was published in French. (See French Writings)
In 1986/1992 the complete book Algemeen Deel was published in Indonesian language. (See Indonesian Writings)
In 1985 the third chapter of Algemeen Deel was published in Indonesian language. (See Indonesian Writings)
One collected paper has been translated in Indonesian: CP15 Struktur Ilmu Hukum (Structure of Legal Science). (See Indonesian Writings)
Four collected papers were written in French by Scholten. (See French Writings)