The Civil Division

Total overview of the Civil Division

These involved classic issues of property law, including on the standard of interpretation of a will (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:1531) or the qualification of a contract such as an employment contract (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:443, Deliveroo), but also issues strongly influenced by European law, such as questions referred for a preliminary ruling regarding the termination of a childcare contract (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:198) and questions referred for a preliminary ruling regarding payment in arrears (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:778).

Remarkable in 2023 was the number of cases in the area of private international law (fifteen decisions in fourteen cases). These cases involved cross-border disputes. Such disputes may give rise to the question of which national court has jurisdiction or under which legal system the dispute must be heard. Such questions arose, for example, in the proceedings on whether the art treasures lent by four Crimean museums to a museum in the Netherlands in 2013 needed to be returned to the Crimean museums or to the State of Ukraine (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:865). Other cases concerned international disputes under employment law, family law and competition law. In a case involving the question of which court has jurisdiction to hear a cross-border dispute regarding competition law, the Supreme Court in turn referred questions for a preliminary ruling to the European Court of Justice of the European Union. This development is in line with the trend of further internationalisation of civil litigation, which also increases its complexity.

The year 2023 was further characterised by a relatively large number of claims for cassation in the interest of the law (eight), an instrument which – like the preliminary ruling proceedings – is pre-eminently intended to contribute to the development of the law and uniformity of law. A claim for cassation in the interest of the law relates to a decision that has become final and is instituted by the Procurator General at the Supreme Court. The outcome of a claim for cassation in the interest of the law does not change the decision against which the claim is directed and therefore does not change the legal position of the parties to the case, but it is of interest to the law. This also involved a wide range of issues, such as regulations on public access to civil proceedings (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:658), judicial review of a perspective or childcare decision in the context of a minor's out-of-home placement (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:1148), and a patient's right to inspect legal opinions on liability for medical error (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:1670). The latter issue is relevant to proceedings on medical liability, in which regard questions referred for a preliminary ruling were also answered in 2023 (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:1682).

In 2023, there were seven cases in which the Civil Division answered questions referred for a preliminary ruling (there were thirteen cases in 2022 and sixteen in 2021). These concerned, among other things, the relationship between the regulation in the Dutch Civil Code and the European Consumer Credit Directive in the case of subsequent payment for purchases in an online store (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:1006), the requirement of the written form in case a consumer buys a building plot (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:1755), and the contribution obligation of joint and several debtors in a group relationship (ECLI:NL:HR:2023:295).

The Supreme Court is also the highest court in Caribbean cases. This means that an appeal in cassation against decisions of the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba can be submitted to the Supreme Court. In 2023, the Civil Division rendered judgement in ten Caribbean cases, on a variety of issues. See, for example, ECLI:NL:HR:2023:773, on law relating to property held in common ownership and ECLI:NL:HR:2023:1057, on timeshare agreements. Generally, the law to be applied corresponds to the law in the European part of the Kingdom, but that is not always the case. Also, legal procedure is not identical in every respect. In addition, when interpreting and applying rules of law, the Supreme Court must take into account the possibility that societal views in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom may deviate from those in the European part of the Kingdom.