In the Netherlands, mayors are entitled to close public and non-public premises if drug-related activities are being conducted there. Using data from the case law of Dutch lower courts, published between 2008 and 2016, this article examines the relative success of different types of litigants, and the influence of case characteristics on drug-related closure cases. We build on Galanter’s framework of ‘repeat players’ and ‘one-shotters’, to argue that a mayor is the stronger party and is therefore more likely to win in court. We categorise mayors as ‘upperdogs’, and the opposing litigants as ‘underdogs’. Moreover, we distinguish stronger mayors from weaker ones, based on the population size of their municipality. Similarly, we distinguish the stronger underdogs from the weaker ones. Businesses and organisations are classified as stronger parties, relative to individuals, who are classified as weaker parties. In line with our hypothesis, we find that mayors win in the vast majority of cases. However, contrary to our presumptions, we find that mayors have a significantly lower chance of winning a case if they litigate against weak underdogs. When controlling for particular case characteristics, such as the type of drugs and invoked defences, our findings offer evidence that case characteristics are consequential for the resolution of drug-related closure cases in the Netherlands.

Met de aanname van het Jeugddelinquentiedecreet, bepaalt Vlaanderen de richting die het wil uitgaan in het omgaan met personen die op minderjarige leeftijd strafbare feiten plegen of hiervan verdacht worden. Zo ambieerde Vlaanderen onder meer zich ‘internationaal als goede praktijk in de aanpak van jeugddelinquentie te profileren’. Deze bijdrage gaat vanuit een kinderrechtenperspectief na in welke mate het nieuwe Vlaamse decreet deze internationale ambitie waar maakt.

In deze bijdrage wordt de rechtspositie van aangehouden minderjarige verdachten vanaf het moment van aanhouding tot en met de voorgeleiding onderzocht en naast de lat van Europese en internationale kinderrechten gelegd. Welke rechten en plichten hebben minderjarige verdachten in het Nederlandse rechtssysteem tijdens de eerste fase van het strafrechtelijk onderzoek, welke rol hebben Europese regelgeving en internationale kinderrechten in de totstandkoming van deze rechten en plichten gespeeld en voldoet Nederland aan dit internationale kader van kinderrechten?

In recent years, migration has been at the centre of European debates and the number of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean remains alarming. To this day, hundreds of people continue to risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean on small boats in order to flee conflict zones, persecution or extreme poverty. However, due to the lack of legal alternatives, migrants engage in dangerous journeys and find themselves helpless in the hands of smugglers. This article will address the growing pattern of criminalisation of migration and humanitarian assistance throughout Europe and consider the extent to which national, European and international anti-smuggling laws affect the work of civil society actors.

De grote toestroom van migranten en asielzoekers in de EU houdt vandaag nog steeds verschillende regelgevers wakker. Niet alleen de nationale overheden, maar ook de EU-regelgevers zoeken naarstig naar oplossingen voor de problematiek. Daartoe trachten de EU-regelgevers het Gemeenschappelijk Europees Asielstelsel (GEAS) bij te werken.
Binnen de groep migranten en asielzoekers bestaat een specifiek kwetsbaar individu: de niet-begeleide minderjarige vreemdeling (NBMV). Hij is zowel vreemdeling als kind en kreeg reeds ruime aandacht binnen de rechtsleer. Nochtans werd deze aandacht niet altijd weerspiegeld in de EU-wetgeving. Het lijkt alsof hij door de regelgevers af en toe uit het oog verloren werd.
Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat de EU-regelgevers nog een zekere weg te gaan hebben. In de eerste plaats bestaat er wat betreft het geheel aan regels met betrekking tot de NBMV weinig coherentie. De EU-regelgevers zouden bijvoorbeeld meer duidelijkheid kunnen scheppen door een uniforme methode vast te leggen voor de bepaling van de leeftijd van de NBMV. Hetzelfde geldt voor een verduidelijking van de notie ‘het belang van het kind’ binnen asiel en migratie. Verder blijken de Dublinoverdrachten en de vrijheidsontneming van de NBMV nog steeds gevoelige pijnpunten. Hier en daar moet aan de hervorming van het asielstelsel nog wat gesleuteld worden, zodat de rechten van de NBMV optimaal beschermd kunnen worden.
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Today, the large influx of migrants and asylum seekers into the European Union (EU) keeps several regulators awake. Not only national authorities, but EU regulators too are diligently searching for solutions to the problems. To this end, EU regulators are seeking to update the Common European Asylum System (CEAS).
There is however a particularly vulnerable individual within the group of migrants and asylum seekers: the unaccompanied alien minor (UAM). These minors already received a great deal of attention within legal doctrine. However, this attention was not always reflected in EU legislation. It seems as if UAM are occasionally lost from sight by the regulators.
This article shows that the EU regulators still have a certain way to go. First, there is little coherence in the set of rules relating to the UAM. The EU regulators could, for example, create more clarity by laying down a uniform method for determining the age of the UAM. The same applies to a clarification of the notion of 'best interests of the child' within the context of asylum and migration. Second, the proposal for a new Dublin Regulation and the proposal for a new Reception Conditions Directive still appear to be sensitive. Here and there, the reform of the asylum system still needs adjustments, so that the rights of UAM can be optimally protected."

In zijn dissertatie verkent de Duitse jurist Philipp Dördelmann de problematiek van de aansprakelijkheid voor schade die deelnemers aan sport en spel elkaar toebrengen. Met behulp van een helder referentiekader, namelijk de eigen aard van de beoefende sport- of spelactiviteit (‘Typizität’) enerzijds en de wederzijdse kans van deelnemers om bij sport en spel schade te lijden (‘Reziprozität’) anderzijds, tracht hij antwoord te geven op de vraag waarom er in geval van aansprakelijkheid voor schade van deelnemers die tijdens sport en spel met elkaar wedijveren, kan worden afgeweken van de zorgvuldigheidsnorm die in het aansprakelijkheidsrecht van toepassing zou zijn bij schadegevallen die zich buiten sport- en spelsituaties voordoen.

This article relies on the premise that to understand the significance of Open Access Repositories (OARs) it is necessary to know the context of the debate. Therefore, it is necessary to trace the historical development of the concept of copyright as a property right. The continued relevance of the rationales for copyright interests, both philosophical and pragmatic, will be assessed against the contemporary times of digital publishing. It follows then discussion about the rise of Open Access (OA) practice and its impact on conventional publishing methods. The present article argues about the proper equilibrium between self-interest and social good. In other words, there is a need to find a tool in order to balance individuals’ interests and common will. Therefore, there is examination of the concept of property that interrelates justice (Plato), private ownership (Aristotle), labour (Locke), growth of personality (Hegel) and a bundle of rights that constitute legal relations (Hohfeld). This examination sets the context for the argument.

Dutch youth care was decentralized in 2015. Since the transfer to the municipalities, youth care is in a state of deep crisis. There are long waiting lists, even in situations of acute need; there is lack of money, of professional and experienced staff, of adequate care, and of central coordination and guidance. In contrast to Denmark, where youth care was transferred to municipalities in 2007, there was barely time to prepare the transfer in the Netherlands. Moreover, the number of municipalities was not significantly reduced and the funding was extremely cut back. In this article, a number of interventions is being proposed to save what can still be saved. First, funding will have to be substantially increased. Second, the access to youth mental health care should not be a matter of municipal authority.

A rapidly growing field of research and practice, restorative justice has primarily found its gravitational centre within the criminal justice system, as an alternative of dealing with the aftermath of crime. Less explored remains the application of restorative justice in complex, urban, or intercultural contexts, an application which raises a whole set of conceptual and practical challenges. This article is based on an action project which aimed to research conflict narratives in intercultural contexts and transform them through restorative praxis. Mostly used in educational, organizational, and health care settings, action research remains an underused but a highly interesting methodology for criminology and criminal justice research. Its alternative epistemology makes it particularly apt for scientific projects that aim both at investigating crime and justice related issues and at engendering change, either at the level of criminal justice or communities. Although action research has focused mostly on creating change at the level of practical knowledge, when conceived in a critical manner, action research aims not only at improving the work of practitioners, but also at assisting them to arrive at a critique of their social or work settings. Practice concerns at the same time problem setting or problem framing. By zooming into one of the case studies of the project, more specifically the social housing estates in Vienna, I focus in this article specifically on the tensions and dilemmas created by processes of engagement in a problematizing approach to the context and to practice. During these processes, together with other social actors, such as inhabitants and professionals, we named problems (in our case social conflicts) and framed the context in which we addressed them. I argue that participatory forms of inquiry, such as action research, should actively reframe rather than merely describe contexts and problems they work with.

Met de evaluatie van de Wet passend onderwijs in het vooruitzicht wordt in dit artikel het daarop toepasselijke kader voor het recht op onderwijs uiteengezet. Hierbij wordt ingezoomd op het recht op onderwijs in een inclusief onderwijssysteem. Gesteld wordt dat het recht op onderwijs zoals vastgelegd in internationale verdragen centraal zou moeten staan bij het evalueren van het huidige systeem en het nemen van stappen om het systeem te veranderen, zoals bij de verankering van het ‘leerrecht’. Want verandering is nodig, blijkt na toetsing aan het internationale kinderrechtenkader.

Aan de hand van drie zaken afkomstig van de Kinderrechtenhelpdesk van Defence for Children illustreren de auteurs verschillende problemen waar kinderen met een handicap in asielzoekerscentra tegenaan lopen. Het artikel bevat een samenvatting van het onderzoek van Defence for Children, ‘Extra beschermd of extra beschadigd? Onderzoek naar de leefomstandigheden van kinderen met een handicap in asielzoekerscentra in Nederland’. Besproken wordt daarbij een recent vernietigend rapport van de Kinderombudsman over medische zorg die aan een doof meisje werd geweigerd omdat zij geen verblijfsvergunning had. De auteurs betogen dat de wetgever, immigratieautoriteiten en opvanginstanties aan zet zijn om ervoor te zorgen dat de rechten van kinderen met een handicap gerespecteerd worden. Dat moet gelden zowel in de verblijfsprocedure als in de opvangprocedures en bij de toegang tot medische zorg.

A comparative law study into the imposition of provisional custodial measures on juveniles in the Netherlands and Belgium in theory and practice.

The Polish Supreme Court has held that a criterion of discrimination may also be a relationship of a social or familial nature that exists in the workplace and whose existence or absence on the part of the employee results in different treatment by the employer.

Both the French Supreme Court and the Versailles Court of Appeal held that an employer, who must ensure that liberties and fundamental rights of each employee are respected in the working community, may lawfully prohibit the wearing of any visible sign of political, philosophical or religious beliefs in the workplace, provided that the rule contained in the company rules and regulations applies without distinction to employees in direct contact with the customers of the company only. But in the absence of such rules, sanctioning an employee who refuses to remove her Islamic veil based on the wish of a customer, which does not qualify as a genuine and determining occupational requirement, amounts to an unlawful direct discrimination and should consequently be held null and void.

Within the group of Dutch foundlings, 28% are migratory foundlings: children coming from abroad to the Netherlands (inbound foundlings), and children going abroad from the Netherlands (outbound foundlings). According to the rational choice theory, there is at some point a rational decision behind human action, based on consideration of costs and benefits – terminology reminiscent of the origins within economic science. When viewed from that perspective, cross-border abandonment may be regarded to be a conscious effort to hinder detection. After all, abandonment of foundlings has been a criminal offence in the Netherlands since at least the Middle Ages. There is therefore also a vested interest in not attracting attention. Anyone abandoning a child and wishing to protect their identity will be attracted to locations that lack effective supervision, defined as guardianship within the criminological routine activities theory. However, the less familiar a location, the trickier it is to avoid visibility. Does the rational consideration of costs and benefits result in migratory foundlings being abandoned just over the border (in order that the perpetrators attract the least possible attention) or actually further inland (in order to detract from the cross-border activity, for example)? Is there a comparable choice in terms of distance when people abandon native foundlings – children found in their country of birth? Relevant questions indeed, as greater insight into such variables can support the direction taken by detection activities. This study is an exploratory analysis of the distance between the domicile or birth location and the abandonment location of cross-border foundlings. The results will then be compared with the distances in the case of domestic foundlings.

Het aantal kinderen in Nederland dat in armoede leeft, is hoog en daalt al jarenlang nauwelijks. De bestrijding van deze problematiek blijkt complex. In dit artikel worden de knelpunten in het huidige beleid beschreven en wordt een andere aanpak bepleit waarbij niet het gezinsinkomen van de ouder(s)/verzorger(s) maar het kind centraal staat. Door voor die benadering te kiezen, menen de auteurs dat meer tegemoet zal worden gekomen aan de behoeften en belangen van kinderen. Dit artikel is in samenwerking met het Kinderrechtencollectief geschreven.