Rolin-Jaequemyns learned the Thai language and had large sections of the existing body of laws translated. In 1895, he wrote to the president of the International Association for Comparative Legal Studies that the material proved highly interesting and was an indispensable preparation for the reform. It would be wrong, he wrote, to simply to transplant western statutes. Instead one should strive to preserve the traits of the traditional law, (which in the case of Siam was based on the Dharmasastra, a buddhist system) while bringing them up-to-date with modern requirements.