Originally, Article 12 of the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure was intended as a correction mechanism for the prosecution monopoly of the Public Prosecution Service. In a later stage, the private interest of complainants (or victims) became more central. This article argues that a third function now emerges: a valve function for social dissatisfaction. The social conflicts that underly the proceedings in these socially sensitive cases give rise to new democratic legitimacy problems. However, an appropriate normative framework that captures these new democratic demands has not yet been constructed. To this end, this article provides an alternative democratic vocabulary in order to bridge the gap between empirical and normative notions of legitimacy. By means of a historical and normative analysis, it will be argued that Article 12 has an important democratic potential within the characteristically autonomous Dutch system of criminal law. |
Search result: 136 articles
Article |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue Pre-publications 2022 |
Keywords | Article 12-procedure, principle of opportunity, liberalism, judicial activism, democratic legitimacy |
Authors | Sophie Koning |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Opinie |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue Pre-publications 2021 |
Keywords | Academische vrijheid, Onafhankelijkheid, Onpartijdigheid, Integriteit, Gedragscode |
Authors | Rob van Gestel |
Author's information |
Article |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | rechtsstaat, toegang tot het recht, sociale dimensie, Nicholas Barber, Pierre Bourdieu |
Authors | Nathalie Franziska Hendrika Schnabl |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This paper considers access to the rule of law as a requirement for the well-functioning of the rule of law in society. In most rule of law debates, access to the rule of law is not a topic of discussion because these scholars focus themselves solely on the legalistic dimension of the rule of law. Barber was the first to mention the social dimension explicitly but without a theoretical framework. Based on the three capitals of Bourdieu, this paper offers a framework to determine the elements of the social dimension. With these capitals, barriers to the access to the rule of law for individuals can be identified, and solutions can be offered. |
Article |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 1 2021 |
Keywords | Vulerability Theory, Liberalism, Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), Public Health, Capabilities Approach |
Authors | Erwin Dijkstra |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The public health systems of liberal states systematically fail to meet the goals and obligations of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which aims to facilitate full societal participation and independent life choices by all impaired persons, as well as the unburdening of their private caretakers. This failure does not stem from a lack of money or effort by governments and other societal institutions, but flaws in the anatomy of these systems. As these systems confine institutional assistance to the needs of persons with certain delineated disabilities, they neglect the needs of other persons, whose disabilities do not fit this mould. The responsibility for the latter group thus falls to their immediate social circle. These private caretakers are in turn seldom supported. To remedy this situation, I will present the alternative paradigm of vulnerability theory as the possible foundation for a more inclusive approach to public health. |
Article |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 2 2020 |
Keywords | Freedom of speech, Separation of powers, Criminal law, Hate speech, Legal certainty |
Authors | Jip Stam |
AbstractAuthor's information |
This article contains a critical review of the provisions in the Dutch penal code regarding group defamation and hate speech. It is argued that not only these provisions themselves but also their application by the Dutch supreme court, constitutes a problem for the legitimacy and functioning of representative democracy. This is due to the tendency of the supreme court to employ special constraints for offensive, hateful or discriminatory speech by politicians. Because such a special constraint is not provided or even implied by the legislator, the jurisprudence of the supreme court is likely to end up in judicial overreach and therefore constitutes a potential – if not actual – breach in the separation of powers. In order to forestall these consequences, the protection of particularly political speech should be improved, primarily by a revision of the articles 137c and 137d of the Dutch penal code or the extension of parliamentary immunity. |
Article |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 2 2020 |
Authors | Ronald Janse |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Een rechtsstaat is gebaseerd op zelfbinding van de overheid aan het recht. Deze zelfbinding moet verankerd zijn in regels die onder meer de onafhankelijkheid van de rechterlijke macht vastleggen. De ontwikkelingen in Polen en elders tonen echter aan dat juridische regels van zelfbinding geen blokkades maar verkeersdrempels zijn op de weg naar despotisch bestuur. Een rechtsstaat vereist vooral een cultuur van zelfbinding. De conceptualisering van deze rechtsstaatcultuur staat nog in de kinderschoenen. |
Article |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 2 2020 |
Authors | Anneloes Kuiper-Slendebroek |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Voor het evenwicht tussen de staatsmachten, maar ook voor de ontwikkeling van internationaal recht, is de wijze waarop de nationale rechter zijn rol vervult van belang: gedraagt hij zich als rechtsvormer of als een rechtshandhaver? Zowel de legitimatie en vorming van het internationale recht als de handhaving van de internationale verplichtingen van de Staat op nationaal niveau zijn hiervan afhankelijk. Deze belangen worden bezien vanuit internationaal perspectief en uiteengezet aan de hand van recente jurisprudentie. |
Editorial |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 2 2020 |
Authors | Elaine Mak, Anne Ruth Mackor and Iris van Domselaar |
Author's information |
Article |
The Case Between Urgenda and the State of the Netherlands |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2020 |
Keywords | climate change, public interest litigation, human rights, ECHR, Netherlands |
Authors | Otto Spijkers |
AbstractAuthor's information |
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands held that the Netherlands’ Government must ensure that, by the end of 2020, greenhouse gas emission levels from the Netherlands are at least a quarter below 1990 levels, otherwise the rights to life and wellbeing, as guaranteed under Articles 2 and 8 ECHR respectively, of the people in the Netherlands are breached. In doing so, the Supreme Court affirmed the reasoning and ruling of the Appeals Court, and distanced itself from the reasoning of the District Court, which was primarily based on domestic tort law. |
Book Review |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 1 2020 |
Keywords | Vervreemding, Naleving van wetten, Legitimiteit, Rule of Law |
Authors | Irawan Sewandono |
Author's information |
Book Review |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 1 2020 |
Authors | Irawan Sewandono |
Author's information |
Article |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 1 2020 |
Authors | Vincent Dupont |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Ever since it was published in 2015, the judgment of the The Hague court in the so-called Urgenda-case, and the subsequent decisions of the appellate and cassation courts confirming it, have been met with repeated and vivid critiques. By recognizing the necessity of the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and furthermore imposing a certain reduction level on the Dutch state, the judgments in the cases at hand gave rise to many questions concerning the position of the judiciary in the matter, and in Dutch society as a whole. This article attempts in the first place to situate the positions of the different actors intervening in the Urgenda-case within a legal-theoretical framework. The contribution subsequently explores the strategic possibilities that an alternative understanding of law could offer to the judges, focusing specifically on the use of legal instruments stemming from international law, brought into the reasoning of the national judge. |
Article |
“Land of Confusion”Social (Fundamental) Rights and the Provisions of the Fundamental Law in Light of the Practice of the Constitutional Court of Hungary |
Journal | Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, Issue 1 2019 |
Keywords | Constitutional Court of Hungary, social rights as fundamental rights, right to social security, state goals, social security system of Hungary |
Authors | István Hoffman |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Modern welfare democracies developed different approaches to social rights. This paper briefly reviews the different models for the institutionalization of social rights as fundamental rights in modern democracies. In Hungary, the approach to social security has been significantly transformed by the Fundamental Law. For this reason, the paper reviews the approach of the Hungarian constitutional system to the right to social security between 1989 and 2011 and introduces the current position of social rights in the Hungarian legal system. This is done through and assessment of the provisions of the Fundamental Law and the current case-law of the Constitutional Court of Hungary. |
Article |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 2 2019 |
Keywords | oprichting, doelstelling, band met de rechtspraktijk, rechtsfilosofie en rechtstheorie, internationalisering (van Duits naar Engels) |
Authors | Corjo Jansen |
AbstractAuthor's information |
De Vereeniging voor Wijsbegeerte des Rechts (VWR) is opgericht op 28 december 1918. Zij had tot doel de studie van de rechtsfilosofie en het maatschappelijk leven. Deze studie moest tevens relevant zijn voor de rechtspraktijk. Vanaf haar oprichting kende de VWR een sterke internationale oriëntatie, aanvankelijk gericht op Duitsland, later vooral op het Verenigd Koninkrijk en de VS. In de jaren zeventig en tachtig van de vorige eeuw beleefde de VWR wat betreft belangstelling en ledenaantal haar hoogtepunt. In 2016 besloot zij – na een gestage neergang – de band met de Nederlandstalige (praktijk)jurist weer aan te halen. |
Article |
|
Journal | Netherlands Journal of Legal Philosophy, Issue 1 2019 |
Keywords | Paul Scholten, dialectiek, existentialisme, Artificiële Intelligentie, ethische theologie |
Authors | Wim Borst |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Een bekend kenmerk van Scholtens beschouwingswijze was zijn dialectiek. |
Article |
Limited Constitutional Amendment Powers in Austria? |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 3 2019 |
Keywords | total revision, amendment, constitutional principles |
Authors | Manfred Stelzer |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In Austria, constitutional amendments can be attained rather easily. A two-thirds majority in parliament allows for engineering constitutional amendments. The Austrian constitution only knows one exception to its flexibility: the principles of the constitution (‘Verfassungsprinzipien’). When the constitutional principles were to be affected by formal amendment in terms of a ‘total revision’ (‘Gesamtänderung’), a higher threshold needs to be met in order to engineer an amendment. In addition to a two-thirds majority in parliament, a referendum is required. Two questions are of particular interest: First, when does a constitutional amendment amount to a total revision and what are its limits? Second, and even more important, which core principles are recognized by the Austrian constitution and what is their content? These questions may be briefly outlined. |
Article |
Constitutional Narcissism on the Couch of PsychoanalysisConstitutional Unamendability in Portugal and Spain |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 3 2019 |
Keywords | unamendable/ eternity clauses, de jure and de facto constitutional change, constitutional narcissism, foundational design, helicopter founding fathers, constitutional alma mater |
Authors | Catarina Santos Botelho |
AbstractAuthor's information |
Comparing the Portuguese Constitution, which has the longest unamendable clause in the world, with the silence of the Spanish Constitution regarding the language of eternity is indeed a fascinating exercise. Each state’s quantum of constitutional change seems to be quite different. One can wonder how two neighbouring states that share a heavy history of right-wing dictatorships and transitioned to democracy forty years ago opted for such dissimilar constitutional designs. However, appearances are often misleading, and an effort should be done to unveil this curious mismatch. |
Article |
Codification in a Civil Law Jurisdiction: A Northern European Perspective |
Journal | European Journal of Law Reform, Issue 4 2017 |
Keywords | codification, types, civil law, legal certainty, ICT |
Authors | Patricia Popelier |
AbstractAuthor's information |
In western civil law jurisdictions, 19th century large-scale codification projects have made way for more specific, technical operations. While several terms for various operations are used – from coordination to consolidation or recasting – they all serve to compile normative texts within one single document for the sake of clarity and legal certainty. A more fundamental distinction can be made between formal and substantial codifications, the one more technical, the other large and fundamental. Substantial law reforms are problematized in this era of multilevel governance and digitalization. Nowadays, substantial codifications are essentially non-exhaustive, inconsistent, and fragmentized. Also, they rely upon formal consolidations, and generate new formal consolidations. While formal consolidations are still treated as logistic projects, more developed ICT tools may enable their transformation into continuous processes. |