Researching Dutch Law

 

by Oswald Jansen and George Middeldorp

 

Published June 2005

Read the Update!

 

Oswald Jansen is senior-researcher at the Centre for the enforcement of European law, G.J. Wiarda Institute, Utrecht University, Netherlands. He holds an LLM-degree of the University of Nijmegen and received his PhD from the University of Amsterdam. His research interest in (public) law enforcement involves Dutch as well as foreign (mainly European) administrative law, Dutch as well as foreign (mainly European) criminal law and European law. He is also deputy judge at the Arnhem criminal court, as well as the 's-Hertogenbosch administrative law court, a member of the police complaints Committee of Amsterdam-Amstelland, chairman of the complaints commission Wijchen, and vice-chairman of the complaints commission Maasdriel.

 

George Middeldorp was the International Law Librarian, Deputy Head of the law library and lecturer in International & European Law, Air Law, and legal research at the Law Faculty of Utrecht University until October 2004. As from that date he works as policy advisor for the Dutch Public Prosecution Service. He is still affiliated with Utrecht University as guest lecturer.

 

Update to an article previously published on LLRX.com on November 18, 2002
<http://www.llrx.com/features/dutch2.htm>

Table of Contents

The Dutch Legal System

Government: General

Parliament

Ministries

Provinces

Local Communities

Water Boards

Trade and Product Boards

Agencies

Other (Semi) Governmental Institutions

Legislation

         Dutch

         English

Case Law

         Dutch

         English

Solicitors/Attorneys

Law Faculties

Law Libraries

Literature

Law Dictionaries

Citation

Discussion List

Miscellaneous Legal Sites

 

The Dutch Legal System

The Kingdom of the Netherlands (Koninkrijk der Nederlanden) was founded in 1813. It was part of France from 1795 until 1813, before 1795 the greater part of the current territory was governed by a confederation of sovereign provinces (Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden).

 

Government Structure

The Netherlands is a constitutional  monarchy with a parliamentary system. Since 1814 there has been a hereditary monarchy occupied in turn by Kings William I, William II and William III, followed by the Princess Regent Emma and Queens Wilhelmina, Juliana and Beatrix' (more information on the websites of the Royal House and the State Archives' Services).

 

'The King is immune (this is the literal translation of "De koning is onschendbaar", in other words The King has or enjoys immunity), ministers are politically responsible and subject to criminal law. In practice only the political responsibility of ministers has any real meaning. Legally speaking the King forms part of the government but actually it is the responsible ministers who make policy' (Constantijn Kortmann and Paul Bovend' Eert, The Kingdom of the Netherlands. An introduction to Dutch Constitutional law, Kluwer Law and Taxation Publishers, Deventer, Boston 1993, p. 5). See on the Dutch constitutional order also Eric Janse de Jonge, The Netherlands, in: Netherlands Reports to the Fifteenth International Congress of Comparative Law, Bristol 1998, pp. 365-378.

 

Some former colonies are still part of the Kingdom: the Carribean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Saba. They form a federation with the parts of the Kingdom in Europe. The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands forms its constitution, which has a meaning superior to the written Dutch Constitution.

 

The territory in Europe could be characterized as a decentralized unitary State. Legislative and administrative powers are exercised by central, regional (12 provinces) as well as local bodies (more than 500 gemeenten). There are also other bodies and agencies that have legislative and administrative powers. Examples are the openbare lichamen voor bedrijf en beroep, the zelfstandige bestuursorganen (agencies) and waterschappen (water boards).

 

Types of Legislation

The most important form of legislation is the legislation made by the central government in cooperation with the Staten-Generaal (Parliament, consisting of two chambres): wetgeving in formele zin (legislation in a formal sense). Lower forms of legislation are rules made by other agencies that belong to central government, such as Algemene maatregel van bestuur and Ministeriële regeling, by the representative organs of provinces (these rules are called Verordeningen), waterschappen (these rules are called Keuren) and gemeenten (these rules are called Verordeningen), by zelfstandige bestuursorganen (agencies) or other openbare lichamen (public bodies).

 

Examples (in Dutch) of various forms of legislation can be found at Overheid.nl (wetgeving in formele zin as well as algemene maatregelen van bestuur and ministeriële regelingen). Two examples of rules made by gemeenten: gemeente Nijmegen and gemeente Amsterdam.

 

The Court System

General information (in Dutch) about the court system can be found on the website Rechtspraak.nl. The Dutch judicial system can roughly be divided into two subsystems: the general system and the administrative law system. The Supreme Court in the general system is the Hoge Raad (Supreme Council), it deals with matters of criminal law, tax law as well as private law. The lower courts are the kantongerechten (courts for petty offences and matters of relatively small importance), the rechtbanken (general courts of first instance) and the gerechtshoven (general courts of second instance).

 

The administrative law system has a few supreme courts: the Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak part of the Raad van State (mainly dealing with planning law as well as environmental law), the Centrale Raad van Beroep (mainly dealing with social security and civil servants matters) and the College van beroep voor het bedrijfsleven (dealing with matters of trade and economic administrative law).

 

The Hoge Raad has administrative law tasks as well (the chamber on criminal matters deals with punitive administrative law matters, tax law is considered a form of administrative law). The courts of first instance in administrative law are the rechtbanken. In tax matters the gerechtshoven are courts of first instance, in some matters of economic administrative law only the Rotterdam rechtbank is court of first instance.

 

The Effect of International and European Law

In the famous Costa-Enel case (6/64) the Court of Justice of the European Community has ruled that European law is an integral part of the national legal system of the EC member countries and takes precedence over national law. Therefore one cannot fully ascertain the applicable law without researching the relevant European law. The Eur-Lex database contains inter alia all Community legislation in force.

 

Another judicial institution which is increasingly influencing Dutch law is the European Court of Human Rights, the judicial organ of the European Convention on Human Rights. More information can be found in Ann Burnett's Guide to Researching the Council of Europe and Sophie Lobey’s The Council of Europe on GlobaLex.

 

As to the effect of general public international law in the Dutch legal order, one has to look at articles 93 and 94 of the Constitution. These articles provide for the direct effect (self-execution) of provisions of treaties and of resolutions of international organizations if they are binding on all persons by virtue of their contents. When the Dutch judge rules that such a provision has direct effect, a citizen can invoke the provision in his case and the provision will then prevail over conflicting Dutch law. The question of direct effect is well explained by Brölmann and Vierdag in their contribution to The Integration of International and European Community Law into the National Legal Order. A Study of the Practice in Europe, edited by Eisemann, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1996, pp. 433-459.

 

Treaties to which the Netherlands is a party were officially published until 1951 in the Staatsblad and since then in the Tractatenblad, which is freely accessible as from 1 January 1995 at the website Overheid.nl.

Government: General

Parliament

 

The Kamerstukken (parliamentary documents), Handelingen (minutes of parliamentary sessions), Kamervragen (questions by MPs + answers from the government) and the agendas are freely available as from 1-1-95 at the website Overheid.nl.

Ministries

Provinces

Local Communities (gemeenten)

Websites of local communities can be found via the Association of Local Communities or Overheid.nl.

Water Boards (waterschappen)

Trade and Product boards (bedrijfs- en productschappen)

Agencies (zelfstandige bestuursorganen)

Other (semi) Governmental Institutions

Legislation

Dutch

Paid Subscriptions

Dutch legislation is officially published in the Staatsblad (acts) and the Staatscourant (ministeral decisions). The collected texts of the legislation in force are also available in:

 

Free Internet Services

English Translations

Printed Sources

 

Internet Sources

 

Case Law

Dutch

Paid Subscriptions

The main Dutch law reports are Nederlandse Jurisprudentie (NJ), Administratiefrechtelijke Beslissingen (AB), Kort Geding (KG) and Rechtspraak van de Week (RvdW). These are both available in journal and in cd-rom (Kluwer Juridische Bibliotheek) format, published by Kluwer. SDU also publishes several law reports, devoted to specialized branches. These reports are published in both journal format and in the online database SDU Jurisprudentie.

 

Free Internet Services

English Translations

English translations of Dutch case law are scarce. There are a few periodicals, however, which publish English summaries of case law:

Solicitors/Attorneys

Law Faculties

Law Libraries

Literature

Bibliographies

The textbook Introduction to Dutch Law (see below) contains an extensive bibliography, edited by E.H. Hondius, of English language publications on Dutch law. In addition, the E.M. Meijers Institute of Legal Studies of the University of Leiden has published the CD-ROM Dutch Law in Translation, which contains bibliographic references to academic publications concerning Dutch law.

 

Data Juridica is a bibliography on CD-ROM of Dutch law journal articles, published by Kluwer. In addition, both the Index to Legal Periodicals and the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (available in paper edition and on CD-ROM) contain many references to journal articles, dealing with Dutch legal issues.  In order to search the book collections of Dutch law libraries see the catalogues accessible through their websites, referred to above.

Books and Journals

General

 

Civil Law

 

Family Law

 

Law of Obligations

 

Commercial Law

 

Tax Law

 

Economic Law

 

Constitutional and Administrative Law

·       Kortmann, C.A.J.M. & Bovend'Eert, P.P.T., Dutch constitutional law, The Hague [etc.]: Kluwer Law International, 2000, ISBN 90-411-1428-9

·       Brouwer, J.G., A Survey of Dutch administrative law, Nijmegen: Ars Aequi Libri, 1998, ISBN 90-6916-302-0

·       A, Klap, Recent developments in Dutch administrative law, European Review of Public Law 1994, p. 221 - 233, London Esperia Publications Ltd.

·       Klap, Recent developments in Dutch administrative law, European Review of Public Law 1995, p. 158 - 171, London Esperia Publications Ltd.

·       Klap, Recent developments in Dutch administrative law, European Review of Public Law 1996, p. 147 - 159, London Esperia Publications Ltd.

·       A.J. Bok, Chronicle 1998: Administrative Law, The Netherlands, in: European Review of Public Law / Revue Européenne de Droit Public, vol. 11.1, London 1999, p. 223-240

·       A.J. Bok, Chronicle 1999: Administrative Law, The Netherlands, in: European

·       Review of Public Law / Revue Européenne de Droit Public, vol. 12.1, London 2000, p. 193-214.

·       G. ten Berge en R. Widdershoven, The principle of legitimate expectations in Dutch constitutional and administrative law

·       Heijmans, Chronique de vie administrative Europe occidentale et orientale – Pays Bas

·       Vanheule, D., “The Netherlands”, in: Carlier, J-Y. et al. (eds.), Who is a refugee? A comparative case law study, The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1997, ISBN 90-411-0348-1, Part I chapter 12

·       Waard, B. de (ed.), Negotiated decision-making, Den Haag: Boom Juridische uitgevers, 2000, ISBN 90-5454-053-2 (contains several contributions about Dutch law)

 

Criminal Law

 

Labor and Social Security Law

 

Environmental Law

 

Sociology of Law

 

Health Law

 

Law and Economics

Law Dictionaries

General Overview

G.R. de Groot & C.J.P. van Laer: Juridische woordenboeken binnen de Europese Unie (Law dictionaries within the European Union)

 

English

 

French

 

German

 

Spanish

 

Multilingual

Citation

The Leidraad voor juridische auteurs contains guidelines how to cite Dutch legislation, case law, parliamentary documents and literature.

Discussion List

JURIST-L@nic.surfnet.nl (Lawyers inform Lawyers on networking=Juristen informeren juristen over netwerkgebruik; Internet voor Juristen; discussion is in Dutch; Netherlands-based list). Send the following message to listserv@nic.surfnet.NL or listserv@hearn.bitnet: subscribe jurist-L Yourfirstname Yourlastname

Archives at http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/jurist-l.html.

Miscellaneous Legal Sites