Johannes Christiaan de Wet (1912–1990) was South Africa's most influential jurist and teacher of law.
[1] Born as a farmer's son in the Orange Free State, he studied law at Stellenbosch, attaining doctorates there and in Leiden.
Among his many publications, the most notable were his seminal textbooks Kontraktereg en Handelsreg (1949, with J.P. Yeats) and Strafreg (1948, with H.L.
With these works, de Wet abandoned the prevailing tradition of constructing legal rules from case law.
[1] Through his work, de Wet enhanced the status of his native Afrikaans by making it a language of scientific legal discourse.