Annual report
The Supreme Court, the Procurator General's Office at the Supreme Court and the Operations Directorate together constitute the joint organisation the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the court of last instance for civil, criminal and tax matters. In this annual report, the various parts of the joint organisation account for their work in the year 2025.
As the highest court in cases regarding civil, criminal and tax law, the Supreme Court has an important and responsible role within the judiciary. Within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it helps ensure that the law performs its functions for the people and organisations in our democratic state under the rule of law. Our work can always be traced back to the core of the Supreme Court's social duty: ensuring uniformity of law, contributing to the development of law and safeguarding legal protection. This is done on the basis of the cases brought before the Supreme Court.
The 'special duties' of the Procurator General are being developed. In carrying out these special duties, the Procurator General at the Supreme Court often supervises the judiciary. For example, the Procurator General is the authority supervising the Public Prosecution Service and, since 2018, has been responsible for monitoring the processing of personal data by courts and the Procurator General's Office at the Supreme Court. Several legislative proposals provide for a further expansion of the special duties of the Procurator General.
The people working at the joint organisation of the Supreme Court again committed to fulfilling those duties as effectively as possible in 2025. In order to continue to perform its duty properly in a changing society, it is important for the Supreme Court to be at the centre of society. The section 'The Supreme Court in society' highlights how the Supreme Court realised this during the reporting year.
In its three preceding annual reports, the Supreme Court consistently focused on the work performed in a specific area of law: the people working at the joint organisation on criminal, tax and civil cases, from the department that handles incoming correspondence right to the justice responsible for explaining a judgment to the press. This year, we are focusing on the lesser-known responsibilities of the Procurator General and the Supreme Court: handling challenge cases and cases concerning the legal position of judges, supervising judges and monitoring GDPR compliance within the judiciary. We have named this chapter 'The Fourth Division', after the division of the Supreme Court responsible for handling such cases.
The annual report shows how the Supreme Court was able in 2025 to contribute to the fulfilment of its overarching role: that rights, obligations and interests of people and organisations in our democratic state under the rule of law are protected by the law.
Dineke de Groot, President
Edwin Bleichrodt, Procurator General
Luuk Aarts, Director of Operations
