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…

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…

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…

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…

Ton Jongbloed The judicially imposed penalty payment on a party not complying with a court order (dwangsom) was introduced in the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure in 1933. Through the rejuvenation in 1978, the regulation of the penalty payment is now equal in Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg law. The topic of the penalty payment is…

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…

Hilke Grootelaar As was proved yet again last week in the Second Chamber, there is great interest in the budget cuts made to the legal aid system. And rightly so, because this ultimately concerns the quality of the rule of law. In the past few years the government has taken various measures which affect the…

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…