BYNKERSHOEK, Cornelius Van (1673-1743), a distinguished Dutch jurist, was born at Middleburg in Zeeland. In the prosecution of his legal studies, and while holding the offices first of member and afterwards of president of the supreme court, he found the common law of his country so defective as to be nearly useless for practical purposes. This abuse he resolved to reform, and took as the basis of a new system the principles of the ancient Roman law. His works are very voluminous. The most important of them are the Observationes Juris Romani, published in 1710, of which a continuation in four books appeared in 1733; the treatise, De Dominio Mams, published in 1721; and the Quaestiones Juris Pzιblici, published in 1737. Complete editions of his works were published after his death; one in folio at Geneva in 1761, and another in two volumes folio at Leyden in 1766.