1. Between Legal Certainty and Doubt
- Author
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Sjarai Lestrade, Nina Holvast, and Joost Nan
- Subjects
Grondslagen van het publiekrecht ,Scope (project management) ,Legislature ,Legislation ,Supreme court ,Empirical research ,Principles of Public Law ,Political science ,Law ,Conflict solving institutions (transition) ,Legal certainty ,Criminal law ,Sectorplan Rechtsgeleerdheid - Probleemoplossende instituties ,Justice (ethics) ,Conflictoplossende instituties (overgangssituatie) - Abstract
The Dutch legislature has recently (2012) altered the legislation for post-conviction revision of criminal cases. The legislature aimed to improve the balance between the competing interests of individual justice and the finality of verdicts, by making post-conviction revision more accessible. In this article we describe the current legal framework for revising cases. We also study how the revision procedure functions in practice, by looking at the types and numbers of (successful) requests for further investigations and applications for revision. We observe three challenges in finding the right balance in the revision process in the Netherlands. These challenges concern: 1) the scope of the novum criterion (which is strict), 2) the appropriate role of an advisory committee (the ACAS) in revision cases (functioning too much as a pre-filter for the Supreme Court) and, 3) the difficulties that arise due to requiring a defence council when requesting a revision (e.g., financial burdens).
- Published
- 2020
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