The Wet van 15 mei 1829, houdende algemeene bepalingen der wetgeving van het Koningrijk (English Law from 15 may 1829, holding general decrees from the legislation of the Kingdom, short name Wet algemene bepalingen) is a principal law of the Netherlands containing a number of basic precepts pertaining to the applicability of the law in general. It is considered part of the body of constitutional law of the Netherlands, which is composed primarily of Constitution of the Netherlands and the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands. History The Wet algemene bepalingen was developed by a legal advisory committee instituted by the Dutch King William I in 1814. It was originally intended to be part of the "General Definitions and Decrees" section of the new Dutch Civil Law, which William I intended to replace the Napoleonic code left over from the French occupation of the Netherlands which had ended in 1813. However, 1815 saw the start of a long period of political discord among the committee members and later the States-General of the Netherlands. This discord had two primary causes: First, the different committees working on parts of the new bodies of law could not agree upon reforming the Napoleonic code or returning to pre-Batavian Republic common law (the primary body of civil law). Second, the addition of the Southern Netherlands to the Northern Netherlands by the Congress of Vienna brought in a lot of new legal scholars and politicians who preferred Napoleonic law over Dutch common law, quite against the wishes of William I. Despite attempts of several parties (including the King), the Southern Dutch dominated parliament rejected the new law in 1822 and pushed for a reformed Napoleonic law. As part of this transformation of the civil law book the "general precepts of law" were split off into a new law, the 1829 Wet Algemene Bepalingen. This law was passed on 15 May 1829 but did not enter into force until October 1, 1838 together with the Civil Law. Ironically, the delay was caused by the Belgian Revolution in which the Southern Netherlands forcibly split off from the kingdom. The Wet algemene bepalingen has since proven to be quite a stable law. It is currently one of the oldest laws still in force in the Netherlands, and remains mostly unchanged from its first version. It has been changed three times in its existence (first time in 1988), always