The Influence of the 1895 Austrian ZPO in the Netherlands

The Austrian Code of Civil Procedure of 1895 was a source of inspiration for procedural reform proposals in the Netherlands in the early twentieth century. These proposals aimed at replacing the liberal procedural model inherited from the French Code of Civil Procedure with a 'societal' model that reduced the powers of the parties in the conduct of a civil lawsuit, while at the same time increasing the powers of the judge significantly. The project was unsuccessful but contained many interesting elements that were introduced into Dutch civil procedure about one hundred years later at the start of the twenty-first century. The reforms of the early twenty-first century have brought Dutch civil procedure into line with the current procedural trends in many European countries