Annual report

With this annual report, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands publicly accounts for its work performed and use of resources for that purpose in the reporting year. The Supreme Court consists of three parts: the Supreme Court itself, the Procurator General’s Office at the Supreme Court, and the Operations Directorate. The Supreme Court can also be divided according to field of law: the Civil Section, the Criminal Section and the Tax Section. Naturally, the various parts and sections of the Supreme Court report on their own work in the past year.

In 2022 the Supreme Court, just as other organisations, was able to leave behind it the lockdowns due to the measures against the spread of the coronavirus and to resume working together – cautiously – in the same building.

In 2022 new people have joined us and we bade farewell to others. It often happens that colleagues who leave the Supreme Court have devoted many years of their careers to the Supreme Court. Continuity and change go hand in hand at the Supreme Court. One change that we were especially looking forward to was the arrival of justices extraordinary whose primary task is to act as State Councillors in the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State. With regard to questions of law that straddle multiple fields of law, it is valuable that the Supreme Court is also able to benefit from their expertise.

This year’s annual report contains a new section: a case from beginning to end. What happens as from the moment an appeal in cassation is initiated until the moment it is decided upon and published? How are the parties informed about the judgment and how does it end up on our website at hogeraad.nl? Through interviews with employees, we demonstrate how this “primary process” runs here at the Supreme Court.

The people we interviewed, and all the other people who work in and at the Supreme Court, made it possible this past year, as well, to provide high-quality judgments in cassation, in the interest of the uniformity of the law, development of the law and protecting the rights of those seeking justice.

Dineke de Groot, President

Edwin Bleichrodt, Procurator General

Vera de Witte, Director of Operations