Recently a project was started that aims to systematically describe and explain the developments in the Criminal Code for the period 1886 - 2017. This article presents the first results of this new project, called the Historical Criminal Code (HWvSr). An overview is given of the long-term developments in the structure – the ‘external’ structure – of the Second Book of the Criminal Code since 1886. The analyzes show that its scope has been substantially expanded over the last 130 years, but also that various articles and article parts have been deleted. The article describes the most important changes in terms of both quantity and content.

Recent research by the National Children’s Ombudsman shows that minors are, or at least feel, insufficiently heard in civil legal procedures such as divorce and guardianship procedures. In response, a conference about the role of minors in the often complex civil litigation was organized at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, on the 31^st of May 2013. Based on the results of this conference, this article identifies both bottlenecks and potential areas for improvement in providing minors with a voice during legal procedures. The main improvement areas include the communication process with minors, child hearings and the appointment of the guardian ad litem and awareness of his role. Specifically, more attention should be paid to the communication between legal professionals and minors. In addition, consensus should be achieved between the courts and tribunals about children’s hearings. The most crucial improvement area is to change the name ‘child hearing’ into ‘conversation with children’. This modification will reduce the associations with criminal law.