In maart 2020 is een wetgevingsproces ten behoeve van een verbod op zwijgcontracten in de zorg gestart. In deze bijdrage analyseert de auteur de (betwiste) toegevoegde waarde van de voorgestelde nietigheidsbepaling in het licht van bestaande remedies in het BW. Met het oog op de heterogeniteit van typen zwijgbedingen wordt de meerwaarde van het zwijgcontractenverbod bepleit.

In deze bijdrage bespreekt de auteur het proefschrift van mr. L.A.B.M. Wijntjens dat ziet op welke wijze civiele procedures en tuchtprocedures de positieve rol die excuses op zichzelf kunnen spelen, belemmeren of stimuleren. Wijntjens concludeert dat er twee juridische belemmeringen zijn: de mogelijkheid dat met het aanbieden van excuses aansprakelijkheid wordt erkend, en de mogelijkheid dat rechters de met excuses gepaard gaande uitingen als vaststaand feit aannemen. Een oplossing zou volgens Wijntjens de introductie van een ‘uitlegregel’ zijn. Deze uitlegregel zou moeten inhouden dat excuses door de ontvanger niet mogen worden opgevat als een erkenning van aansprakelijkheid.

Most countries in the world chose a more or less stringent form of lockdown policy in order to protect citizens from contagion. This essay offers a critical perspective by asking for the Netherlands whether flattening the curve does not cost more healthy life years (qaly’s) than it saves. A cost-benefit analysis is performed discussing four issues. First: how many qaly’s are actually saved by the lockdown measures? Second: what are the opportunity costs of the lockdown? This means investigating how many qaly’s could have been generated if the economic cost of the lockdown had been spent directly into health care. Third: investigating how many qaly’s are lost because of postponing regular care. And fourth: discussing how many qaly’s are at stake because of excess unemployment. While acknowledging uncertainties the conclusion seems unavoidable: lockdown has and will cost more qaly’s than it generates.

This article contains a critical review of the provisions in the Dutch penal code regarding group defamation and hate speech. It is argued that not only these provisions themselves but also their application by the Dutch supreme court, constitutes a problem for the legitimacy and functioning of representative democracy. This is due to the tendency of the supreme court to employ special constraints for offensive, hateful or discriminatory speech by politicians. Because such a special constraint is not provided or even implied by the legislator, the jurisprudence of the supreme court is likely to end up in judicial overreach and therefore constitutes a potential – if not actual – breach in the separation of powers. In order to forestall these consequences, the protection of particularly political speech should be improved, primarily by a revision of the articles 137c and 137d of the Dutch penal code or the extension of parliamentary immunity.

Schools are tasked with helping children to become socially competent(er), both in the on- and offline world. If conflicts occur, schools find out how they can tackle this behaviour and prevent it in the future. Schools cover various tracks here. More and more schools have understood that they can actively involve children and young people in their preventive and problem-solving approach. They integrate methodologies and programmes that give children and young people the opportunity to take responsibility when a conflict occurs. Some of these methods and programmes are looked at more closely in this article. The article concludes with a future-oriented dream that responds to some current educational needs.

As mediators we should be aware of our biases. We cannot avoid them, although we need integrity and impartiality while helping people communicate and negotiate in their search for conflict resolution. The mediator’s job is delicate and important, as we ‘play’ with people and their underlying interests, emotions and identity. That is also the case in business mediation, where it all seems to be just professional and some feel emotions are to be avoided.
Mediators need much intrapersonal work to stay balanced and to manage their own biases. In this article a 5 step Managing Biases Process (5MBP) is suggested.
To do this honestly and seriously, and to keep growing, we need a ‘sparring partner”. Such mediator buddy contributes to our checks and balances, and better guarantees the integrity of the mediator.

This paper examines moral injury, in relation to recovery from this kind of psychic damage and to restorative justice. In recent research the concept is developed in distinction from the psychiatric diagnosis PTSD. Whereas PTSD is rooted in anxiety, as it occurs during or after life-threatening situations, people suffering from moral injury are disruptively affected by guilt and shame, in the slipstream of which they may be tormented by remorse, self-loathing, anger and self-disgust – with symptoms similar to PTSD. Unlike PTSD, however, the risk of moral injury is part of ordinary life. It may happen to anyone. Therefore, this paper takes an ‘existential’ perspective by relating moral injury to the fundamental human condition of relationality. Moral injury is interpreted as the disturbance of the responsibility, the confidence and the security that fundamentally sustain the human relationships to the world, to each other, and to oneself. One way of recovering from moral injury is through empathy, primarily performed by caregivers or chaplains who guide the morally injured, and consequently accomplished by the injured themselves, in a narrative way.

In this article, we report on our initial findings (from the field) regarding conflict resolution among the Maroons in Suriname. After first providing some background information about the Maroons (section 2), we describe their manner of conflict resolution after a crime has taken place and we explain what justice within this context entails for them (section 3). Subsequently, we try to distil ‘the useful elements’ from the Maroons’ approach to crime, that is to say elements with which modern restorative justice, i.e. restorative justice that meets, inter alia, human rights and constitutional requirements, can be nourished and strengthened. We also discuss some of the challenges we have encountered, where the traditional legal system and the modern criminal justice system come together (section 4). Then we try to build some possible bridges between the two legal systems (section 5). The contribution concludes with providing a window on the future of the development of restorative justice in Suriname and the Netherlands.

In this article, some of the findings of a practice and policy oriented research project on ‘radicalisation’ are discussed. The research was carried out in a partnership between three Belgian universities and two field organisations during the years 2017-2019. The project aimed at a ‘Constructive analysis on the attitudes, policies and programmes that relate to “radicalisation”’ (CONRAD). Restorative justice offered the initial framework to design and to set up the project. This article offers some findings and reflections on the opportunities (and the limits) that were found in the project with respect to the relevance of restorative justice. This part of the research was done on the basis of a frame-analysis on the one hand, and field work on the other. The article first presents the restorative justice assumptions that formed the backbone of the project. Then, the method of ‘inductive frame-analysis’ is presented as this was applied to a sample of media and policy documents that reported about ‘radicalisation’ and ‘de-radicalisation’ related issues in Belgium. This resulted in the identification of four frames and eight counterframes. The field work in the form of ‘participatory action research’ with young persons and their organisations in the cities of Brussels and Verviers is then discussed, revealing a complex situation of social tensions. It is argued then that the use of frames and counterframes can help those involved in, or concerned about, social problems to look at these issues from another perspective, through another lens. Based on the method of photo-elicitation, cartoons related to frames and counterframes were designed in the project as a tool to facilitate talking about ‘radicalisation’ from different perspectives. The article ends with reflections on the relevance of restorative justice in dealing with ‘radicalisation’ and violent extremism. A broad relational and participatory approach to respond to these ‘phenomena’ at societal level is proposed.

Richtlijn 2013/33/EU (de Opvangrichtlijn) regelt welke opvangvoorzieningen aan asielzoekers moeten worden verstrekt en ook hun rechten op documenten, onderwijs en toegang tot de arbeidsmarkt en gezondheidszorg. In de uitspraak HvJ 12 november 2019, zaak C-233/18 inzake Zubair Haqbin oordeelt het Hof van Justitie dat de intrekking – al was het maar tijdelijk – van alle materiële opvangvoorzieningen of van de materiële opvangvoorzieningen die betrekking hebben op huisvesting, voeding of kleding, onverenigbaar is met de verplichting om ervoor te zorgen dat Haqbin een waardige levensstandaard geniet. Een dergelijke sanctie ontneemt hem immers de mogelijkheid om te voorzien in zijn meest elementaire behoeften.
HvJ 12 november 2019, zaak C-233/18, ECLI:EU:C:2019:956 (Zubair Haqbin/Federaal Agentschap voor de opvang van asielzoekers, België)

In order to improve the effectiveness of offender supervision many studies have been conducted into risk factors for delinquency. Evidence was found that debts and crime are interrelated. However, understanding of potential underlying risk factors in this relationship is limited. Results of an analysis of client files (N=250) show that debts among probation clients are highly prevalent and problems with respect to education, work and mental and physical health seem to be important underlying factors in the relationship between debts and crime. In addition, interviews were conducted with both probation workers (N=33) and clients (N=16) to get insight into the possibilities to adequately support clients with regard to debts in order to stimulate successful resocialization. Results underline the importance of paying attention to possible underlying factors to effectively supervise clients.

This contribution reports about a research in a medium-sized municipality on the possibilities of giving municipalities an instrument to determine at the earliest possible stage which neighborhoods are at (increased) risk of exposure to organized crime and its consequences. We are searching for indicators to measure that exposure to give direction to preventive measures. Our focus is on the erosion of structures and foundations of society as a result of activities of organized crime, eventually resulting in the infringement of the rule of law. It is therefore not about the phenomenon of organized crime itself, but about its effects on society. This requires clarification and measurability of the concept. In this first exploration, we focus on the following five manifestations of the effect of organized crime: The emergence of a subculture: not recognizing government authority; the emergence of takeover of power in the neighborhood; the emergence of vulnerable groups of citizens; the creation of the image: crime pays off; and the emergence of unfair competition.

Artificial intelligence speelt een steeds grotere rol, zo ook binnen het ondernemingsrecht. In dit artikel staat de opkomst van de robot als vennootschappelijk bestuurder centraal. Daarbij wordt aandacht besteed aan rechtspersoonlijkheid, het functioneren van de robot als bestuurder en de aansprakelijkheid voor het handelen van de robotbestuurder.

De opkomst van de platformeconomie, met als prominente voorbeelden Uber en Deliveroo, deed de discussies omtrent de aard van de arbeidsrelatie heropleven. Zijn deze platformwerkers in werkelijkheid werknemers, en is het arbeidsrecht aan hervorming toe indien ze het wel of niet zijn? Deze bijdrage heeft eveneens tot doel om de werkingssfeer van het arbeidsrecht ter discussie te stellen door de regelgeving omtrent private arbeidsbemiddeling en uitzendarbeid toe te passen op platformen. Dienaangaande bepleit deze bijdrage om ten eerste de regelgeving omtrent private arbeidsbemiddeling aan te wenden om ook de bemiddeling van dienstverleningsovereenkomsten tussen werkzoekenden en opdrachtgevers te omkaderen. Ten tweede wijst de bijdrage op de mogelijke totstandkoming van ‘verdoken’ uitzendarbeid door middel van digitale platformen. Om dit te voorkomen stellen de auteurs een ‘vermoeden van uitzendbureau’ voor.

Based on a retrospective analysis of six large scale and fatal fires in the Netherlands, an improvement in terms of meeting the needs of victims can be seen. A comparison of the legal settlement of these fires shows mayor differences in the fulfilling of different aspects of social justice that are identified in social psychology. Two victim needs commonly associated with retributive justice – financial compensation and a thorough, neutral investigation into the causes of the disaster – were fulfilled to a higher degree after the most recent fires than after those that occurred decades ago. The legal settlement after the New Year’s fire in Volendam (2001) appears – at least on paper – to have been more just from the victim’s point of view than the ones after the other incidents. Empirical research into the experienced social justice after the New Year’s fire can be valuable to assess the factors that can lead to a just settlement after disasters.

In deze bijdrage wordt onderzocht wat er vanuit een ‘herstelgericht’ perspectief te zeggen is over de afwikkeling van medische schade. Biedt restorative just culture aanknopingspunten voor een afwikkeling van medische schade die beter aansluit bij de behoeften van betrokkenen?