Contribution Thom Dieben to cassation blog VCAS

On 27 January last, a contribution by Thom Dieben entitled “Art. 80a RO: Met recht heeft het (af en toe) niets te maken“. [Art. 80a RO it (sometimes) has nothing to do with the law] was published on this blog. In this contribution, Thom discusses recent case law of the Dutch Supreme Court on art. 80a Wet op de rechterlijke indeling (RO) [Dutch Judiciary Organization act]. Pursuant to this article, the Dutch Supreme Court may declare an appeal inadmissible if it is manifestly devoid of interest or because it is manifestly ill-founded. Particularly in relation to the former category (devoid of interest) the case law of the Supreme Court is constantly developing . Thom is of the view that on the one hand, this poses a (new) practical dilemma for cassation lawyers. On the other hand, this case law is the start of a worrying trend in human rights protection in Dutch criminal cases.

Click here for the text of the full blog post (in Dutch)