The Procurator General of the Supreme Court

The most important task of the Procurator General and the advocates general of the Supreme Court is to provide the Court with independent advice - so called advisory opinions - on how to rule in the proceedings before them.  An advisory opinion generally reviews the facts upon which the Supreme Court must base its judgment, the legal questions the Court must answer, the decision of the court whose judgment is being appealed in cassation, scholarly opinion and existing case law. In addition, a number of possible solutions are sometimes presented. In civil cases and part of the criminal cases an advisory opinion is required. There is no such requirement in tax cases. The Supreme Court is free to concur with or differ from the advisory opinion. The advisory opinions are published together with the judgments on www.rechtspraak.nl.