Montaigne Centre Blog

Dutch help for the Greek civil justice system?

Eddy Bauw The statement made during the Euro Summit on Greece on the 12th of July following 17 hours of meetings included one measure which has received less attention than the other (serious) demands made against Greece to qualify for new loans (Euro Summit Statement Brussels, 12 July 2015 (SN 4070/15)). One of the measures…

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Should we be happy with a pesky hornet? On the querulant and his unintended, unexpected but desirable functions

Wibo van Rossum While researching the challenge procedures (publication, ‘Wraking bottom-up’ in 2012 and the current research into the ‘pilot externe wrakingskamer’) I became interested in the querulant. Querulants, in my opinion, challenge a judge more often than other citizens. They are also partly classified by this characteristic. Erhard Blankenburg has previously said that with…

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Access to Mediation

Marc Simon Thomas In the NRC Handelsblad a piece written by my colleagues Grootelaar and Van den Bos was recently published on the new mediation legislation. Apart from this article the public debate concerning mediation appears to be at a standstill for some time. The lull before the storm, I suppose. Although the private member’s…

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Judicial Independence Detained

Leonie van Lent As fits a centre of research on judicial administration, earlier blogs have dealt with urgent questions about the adherence to the rule of law and the functioning of the judiciary in the Netherlands. The topic of pre-trial detention combines all those questions. Here the politics of safety, the politicization of constitutional guarantees…

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Conference on Procedural Justice and Legal Practice

On the 10th of April 2015 the international conference on procedural justice and legal practice organized by the Montaigne Centre took place. Guests and speakers, from Utrecht and from far, gathered at 10 am at a very suitable location: one of the courtrooms of the District Court Midden-Nederland, location Utrecht. After a short welcome by…

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Democracy and Judicial Selection

Philip Langbroek The provincial elections were considered a test case for the current cabinet, since the provincial councils also elect the Senate of the Dutch Parliament. The elections were accompanied by a debate on whether we should get rid of the Dutch Senate. Politicians from one of the coalition parties pleaded for the abolition of…

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