 He went to school in the Sint-Barbaracollege in Ghent (Rhetorica 1947).He studied law at the University of Ghent and further in Paris and London, and wrote his habilitating thesis on the burden of proof ("De bewijslast in het Belgisch privaatrecht", 1961).He became Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Antwerp and the University of Ghent, where he held the Chair in Civil Procedure.