Netherlands · Hoge Raad, Raad van State, courts of appeal and district courts
Justice in the Netherlands in figures
In 2025, the 19 courts covered here published 64,124 decisions on rechtspraak.nl, 11% more than in 2024. District courts account for 75% of them and 61% concern administrative law. These are published decisions, a selection of all rulings: the counts describe published case law, not caseloads.
- Published decisions in 202564,124+11% over one year
- Courts covered1911 district courts, 4 courts of appeal and 4 highest courts
- Administrative law61%of the decisions; civil law: 39%
- Largest detailed areaImmigration law16,353 decisions, 26% of the total
The courts
The Dutch judiciary has district courts (rechtbanken) at first instance, courts of appeal (gerechtshoven), the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad) and three highest administrative courts: the Council of State, the Central Appeals Tribunal and the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal. For each of the 19 courts, the table gives the number of its decisions published on rechtspraak.nl in 2025, the change over one year and its share of the published total.
Rechtbank Den Haag published the largest number of decisions in 2025, 18,443 (29% of the total), followed by Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant (6,076) and Raad van State (5,549). Together, the 11 district courts published 48,101 decisions (75%), the 4 courts of appeal 6,901 (11%) and the 4 highest courts 9,122 (14%). Compared with 2024, 13 of the 19 courts published more decisions and 6 published fewer. Of the 18,443 decisions of Rechtbank Den Haag, 13,770 (75%) carry the immigration law label.
| Court | Type | Decisions 2025 | Change | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rechtbank Den Haag | District court | 18,443 | +23% | 29% |
| Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant | District court | 6,076 | +1% | 9.5% |
| Rechtbank Midden-Nederland | District court | 5,140 | +12% | 8% |
| Rechtbank Rotterdam | District court | 4,612 | +15% | 7.2% |
| Rechtbank Noord-Holland | District court | 3,548 | +24% | 5.5% |
| Rechtbank Amsterdam | District court | 2,744 | +27% | 4.3% |
| Rechtbank Gelderland | District court | 2,079 | +17% | 3.2% |
| Rechtbank Overijssel | District court | 1,640 | +15% | 2.6% |
| Rechtbank Limburg | District court | 1,463 | −3% | 2.3% |
| Rechtbank Noord-Nederland | District court | 1,282 | +33% | 2% |
| Rechtbank Oost-Brabant | District court | 1,074 | +30% | 1.7% |
| Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden | Court of appeal | 2,679 | +9% | 4.2% |
| Gerechtshof Amsterdam | Court of appeal | 1,646 | −3% | 2.6% |
| Gerechtshof 's-Hertogenbosch | Court of appeal | 1,296 | −15% | 2% |
| Gerechtshof Den Haag | Court of appeal | 1,280 | +20% | 2% |
| Raad van State | Highest administrative court | 5,549 | +7% | 8.7% |
| Centrale Raad van Beroep | Highest administrative court | 1,900 | −22% | 3% |
| Hoge Raad | Supreme Court | 985 | −3% | 1.5% |
| College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven | Highest administrative court | 688 | −28% | 1.1% |
Published decisions only: each court publishes a different share of its rulings, and the areas of law it hears differ, so these counts are not caseloads and cannot be compared as workloads (see “Understanding these figures”).
Areas of law
Each decision published on rechtspraak.nl carries one or more area-of-law labels: three broad groups (administrative law, civil law and public international law) and, within them, detailed areas such as tax law or family law. The table counts the decisions that carry each label in 2025. A decision can carry several labels and some carry only a broad one, so the detailed areas do not add up to their group.
Administrative law accounts for 38,907 decisions (61%) and civil law for 25,207 (39%) of the 64,124 decisions published in 2025. Immigration law is the largest detailed area, with 16,353 decisions (26% of all published decisions), 16% more than in 2024. It is followed by family law (7,005) and contract and liability law (5,818). 9 of the 20 detailed areas with decisions in 2025 have at least 1,000 of them.
| Area of law | Group | Decisions 2025 | Share of total | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative law | Broad group | 38,907 | 61% | +10% |
| Civil law | Broad group | 25,207 | 39% | +14% |
| Public international law | Broad group | 23 | under 0.1% | – |
| Immigration law | Administrative law | 16,353 | 26% | +16% |
| Family law | Civil law | 7,005 | 11% | +15% |
| Contract and liability law | Civil law | 5,818 | 9.1% | +13% |
| Tax law | Administrative law | 5,173 | 8.1% | −3% |
| Social security law | Administrative law | 3,996 | 6.2% | −7% |
| Administrative procedure | Administrative law | 2,505 | 3.9% | +19% |
| Planning and environmental law | Administrative law | 2,001 | 3.1% | +28% |
| Employment law | Civil law | 1,089 | 1.7% | +4% |
| Insolvency law | Civil law | 1,037 | 1.6% | +49% |
| Civil procedure | Civil law | 589 | 0.9% | −1% |
| Company law | Civil law | 326 | 0.5% | −2% |
| Property law | Civil law | 142 | 0.2% | −2% |
| Intellectual property law | Civil law | 121 | 0.2% | −1% |
| Civil service law | Administrative law | 116 | 0.2% | −28% |
| Public procurement law | Civil law | 84 | 0.1% | +25% |
| European civil law | Civil law | 74 | 0.1% | +131% |
| Private international law | Civil law | 65 | 0.1% | +81% |
| Competition law (civil) | Civil law | 14 | under 0.1% | – |
| European administrative law | Administrative law | 3 | under 0.1% | – |
| Competition law (administrative) | Administrative law | 3 | under 0.1% | – |
A decision can carry several area labels and some carry only a broad one: counts of different areas cannot be added together.
Decisions year by year
This chart follows, year by year, the number of decisions published by each type of court. The volume measures what is published, not the number of cases brought in the same year: a case may be decided months or years after it was filed, and courts publish only part of their rulings.
Over the period, the total number of published decisions rose every year, from 23,824 in 2013 to 64,124 in 2025 (+169%). The number of district court decisions went from 7,688 to 48,101; that of the courts of appeal went from 5,129 to 6,901; that of the Hoge Raad went from 1,474 to 985; that of the Raad van State went from 4,925 to 5,549; that of the Central Appeals Tribunal went from 4,013 to 1,900; that of the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal went from 595 to 688. Rechtbank Den Haag accounts for 42% of the increase: its published decisions went from 1,486 in 2013 to 18,443 in 2025. District courts published 75% of the decisions in 2025, against 32% in 2013.
- District courts
- Courts of appeal
- Hoge Raad
- Raad van State
- Centrale Raad van Beroep
- CBb
| Year | District courts | Courts of appeal | Hoge Raad | Raad van State | Centrale Raad van Beroep | CBb | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 7,688 | 5,129 | 1,474 | 4,925 | 4,013 | 595 | 23,824 |
| 2014 | 8,042 | 5,643 | 1,423 | 4,794 | 4,086 | 491 | 24,479 |
| 2015 | 8,876 | 6,160 | 1,257 | 4,078 | 4,554 | 449 | 25,374 |
| 2016 | 9,516 | 5,971 | 1,345 | 3,504 | 4,639 | 453 | 25,428 |
| 2017 | 11,036 | 6,107 | 1,266 | 3,596 | 3,995 | 503 | 26,503 |
| 2018 | 11,931 | 5,849 | 1,152 | 4,277 | 3,803 | 690 | 27,702 |
| 2019 | 11,602 | 6,465 | 1,142 | 4,468 | 3,931 | 727 | 28,335 |
| 2020 | 21,027 | 6,537 | 1,268 | 3,106 | 3,507 | 1,032 | 36,477 |
| 2021 | 25,712 | 6,982 | 1,212 | 2,989 | 3,331 | 1,094 | 41,320 |
| 2022 | 28,485 | 6,781 | 1,182 | 3,952 | 2,846 | 651 | 43,897 |
| 2023 | 36,071 | 6,671 | 1,061 | 4,782 | 2,524 | 744 | 51,853 |
| 2024 | 41,223 | 6,745 | 1,020 | 5,163 | 2,435 | 950 | 57,536 |
| 2025 | 48,101 | 6,901 | 985 | 5,549 | 1,900 | 688 | 64,124 |
Series start in 2013, the first year of the current court map (11 district courts and 4 courts of appeal). The series reflect what courts publish as well as what they decide.
The court system
Dutch courts are organised in tiers. The 11 district courts (rechtbanken) hear cases at first instance in civil and administrative matters. The 4 courts of appeal (gerechtshoven) rehear civil and tax cases, and the Hoge Raad, the Supreme Court, rules in cassation on points of law. Administrative cases take different routes depending on the subject: the Council of State, the Central Appeals Tribunal and the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal are the highest courts in their fields.
In 2025, 61% of the published decisions concern administrative law, which follows several routes of appeal, and 39% concern civil law, which follows a single one. The 4 courts of appeal published 6,901 decisions in 2025 and the 4 highest courts 9,122: Raad van State (5,549), Centrale Raad van Beroep (1,900), Hoge Raad (985) and College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven (688).
| Type of case | First instance | Appeal | Further appeal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Civil and family cases | District court | Court of appeal | Hoge Raad (points of law) |
| Tax cases | District court | Court of appeal | Hoge Raad (points of law) |
| Immigration, planning and environment, most other administrative cases | District court | Council of State | – |
| Social security and civil service cases | District court | Central Appeals Tribunal | – |
| Economic regulation: trade and industry, competition, financial markets | District court | Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal | – |
Simplified: the route depends on the statute and on the kind of decision. In a few matters, such as challenges to zoning plans, the Council of State rules at first and last instance, and the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal sometimes rules as the only court.
See also Raad van State Centrale Raad van Beroep Hoge Raad College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven
Understanding these figures
A published selection
The figures count decisions published on rechtspraak.nl, the website of the Dutch judiciary, where each decision carries a European Case Law Identifier (ECLI). Courts publish only part of their rulings, and the share published differs from one court to another, from one area of law to another and from one year to the next. In 2025 these were 64,124 decisions from the 19 courts covered here; they describe published case law and not caseloads, and the counts of different courts should not be compared as workloads.
How areas of law are labelled
Each published decision carries one or more area-of-law labels. There are three broad groups, administrative law, civil law and public international law, and, within them, detailed areas such as tax law or family law. A decision can carry several labels, and some carry only a broad one, so the detailed areas do not add up to their group and counts for different areas cannot be added together. In 2025, 38,907 of the 64,124 published decisions carry the administrative-law label and 25,207 the civil-law label. The number of detailed area labels per published decision went from 0.46 in 2013 to 0.73 in 2025, so the evolution of a detailed area also reflects how often these labels are applied.
Counts only
For the Netherlands the data give counts of published decisions and nothing else: no outcome of the case (whether a claim was granted or dismissed) and no time to judgment. These figures therefore say nothing about how often claims succeed or how long cases take, and no statistic can predict the outcome of a particular case.
Years shown and the 2013 court map
Series start in 2013. In 2013 the Netherlands reorganised its court map: the 19 former district courts were merged into larger regional courts, 11 today, and the five courts of appeal into four. The figures therefore begin with the current structure. The number of published decisions went from 23,824 in 2013 to 64,124 in 2025.
Reading the figures with care
A court's count depends on the cases brought before it, on the areas of law it hears and on what it publishes. In 2025, Rechtbank Den Haag alone published 29% of the decisions in the data, and some courts publish decisions in only a few areas of law. These figures describe past published decisions and should be read with care: no statistic can predict the outcome of a particular case.
Frequently asked questions
How many court decisions are published in the Netherlands each year?
In 2025, the 19 courts covered here published 64,124 decisions on rechtspraak.nl, against 57,536 in 2024. These are published decisions, a selection of all rulings, so the figure is not the number of cases the courts handled.
Does this show how many cases Dutch courts handle?
No. Courts publish only part of their rulings, and the share differs from one court to another, so the counts describe published case law and not caseloads. They should not be compared as workloads.
Which Dutch court publishes the most decisions?
In 2025, Rechtbank Den Haag published 18,443 decisions, followed by Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant (6,076) and Raad van State (5,549). The mix of areas of law differs a lot from one court to another, and so do publication practices.
Which areas of law appear most often in published decisions?
In 2025, immigration law (16,353 decisions), family law (7,005) and contract and liability law (5,818) carry the most frequent detailed area labels. Administrative law accounts for 61% of all published decisions and civil law for 39%.
What do the area-of-law labels mean?
Each decision published on rechtspraak.nl carries one or more labels: three broad groups (administrative law, civil law and public international law) and detailed areas such as tax law or family law. A decision can carry several labels, so the detailed areas do not add up to their group.
How are the Dutch courts organised?
Civil and tax cases go from a district court to a court of appeal and then, on points of law, to the Hoge Raad. Most other administrative cases go from a district court to the Council of State, the Central Appeals Tribunal or the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal, depending on the subject.
Do the figures show how long cases take or how often claims succeed?
No. For the Netherlands the data hold counts of published decisions only, with no outcome and no time to judgment.