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Overview of Courts in Belgium: The Court of
Cassation
In Dutch it is called Hof van Cassatie
In French it is called Cour de cassation
In German it is called Kassationshof
is the main court of last resort in Belgium. It was originally
modelled after the French Cour de cassation. Its jurisdiction
and powers are similar to those of its French counterpart. The
court comprises three chambers with 16 judges. Each chamber in
turn has a Dutch and a French division. Each chamber has a chief
judge, called the President, and two heads of division, one for
each language group. The entire court is headed by a chief judge
called the First President. The parket generaal (D) or parquet
g�n�ral (F) is headed by the Chief Prosecutor (D:
procureur-generaal, F: procureur-general). The Prosecutor is a
magistrate, but does not actually try cases (his role is to give
legal advice to the Court, in a similar manner to the
Commissioner of the Government of Council of State (D: Raad van
State, F:Conseil d'�tat ). He brings cases to the Court "in the
name of the law." The Chief Prosecutor is aided by the First
Prosecutor (first advocat-general) and about 12 Prosecutors (D:
advocaten-generaal, F: avocats-g�n�raux).
Council of State
In Dutch it is called Raad van State
In French it is called Conseil d'�tat
In German it is called Staatsrat)
This court is part of the Belgian government. It is the Supreme
Administrative Court of Belgium. Its functions include assisting
the executive with legal advice and being the supreme court for
administrative justice. Its members are (for the most part) high
level jurists.
The Court of Assize.
In Dutch it is called Hof van Assisen
In French it is called Cour d'Assises
This court is similar to the French court of the same name. It
has jurisdiction over all felonies that haven't been
correctionalised, over political offences and press-related
offences, except those inspired by racism or xenophobia, and
over crimes of international law, such as genocide and crimes
against humanity. These courts sit in each of the ten provinces
and in the administrative arrondissement of Brussels-Capital.
Unlike the other courts, which have a permanent structure, a
Court of Assize has to be constituted for each specific case. It
comprises three professional judges and 12 jurors. The presiding
judge is to be a judge at a Court of Appeal and is assisted by
two judges of Courts of First Instance. The jury invariably
consists of twelve members, who are balloted out of the citizens
having the right to vote at elections and aged between thirty
and sixty, and they must be able to read and write. In addition,
it is possible to call up one to twelve alternate jurors. Only
the jury decides upon the facts, and with the judges the penalty
is determined. There is no appeal for the verdicts, apart from
one before the Court of Cassation.
The Court of First Instance
In Dutch it is called Rechtbank van eerste aanleg
In French it is called Tribunal de premi�re instance
In German it is called Gericht erster Instanz
This court in Belgium consists of three divisions: the Civil
Court, the Correctional Court and the Juvenile Court. There is a
Court of First Instance for each Judicial Arrondissement.
The Commercial Court
In Dutch it is called Rechtbank van koophandel
In French it is called Tribunal de commerce
In German it is called Handelsgericht
This court in Belgium deals with commercial litigation that
exceeds the competence of the Justice of the Peace and hears
appeals against the decisions of the Justice of the Peace in
commercial cases. It is not a division of the Court of First
Instance because commercial law is not a branch of civil law in
Belgium.
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