Netherlands · Supreme Court of the Netherlands
Hoge Raad: published decisions
In 2025, Hoge Raad (Supreme Court of the Netherlands) published 985 decisions on rechtspraak.nl, 3% fewer than in 2024. That is 1.5% of the 64,124 decisions published by the 19 courts covered here. Of the court's decisions, 71% carry the administrative-law label and 29% the civil-law label. These counts describe published case law, not the court's caseload.
- Published decisions in 2025985−3% over one year
- Share of the Dutch total1.5%of the 64,124 decisions of the 19 courts
- Administrative law71%of its decisions; civil law: 29%
- Largest detailed areaTax law699 decisions, 71% of the court's total
Decisions year by year
The chart follows the number of decisions of Hoge Raad published on rechtspraak.nl, year by year since 2013, the first year of the current court map. The count measures what is published, not the number of cases the court handled.
In 2025, Hoge Raad published 985 decisions, 3% fewer than in 2024. This is 1.5% of the 64,124 decisions published by the 19 courts, against 6.2% in 2013. Over the period, the court's yearly count of published decisions went from 1,474 in 2013 to 985 in 2025 (−33%).
| Year | Decisions | Change | Share of the 19 courts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 1,474 | – | 6.2% |
| 2014 | 1,423 | −3% | 5.8% |
| 2015 | 1,257 | −12% | 5% |
| 2016 | 1,345 | +7% | 5.3% |
| 2017 | 1,266 | −6% | 4.8% |
| 2018 | 1,152 | −9% | 4.2% |
| 2019 | 1,142 | −1% | 4% |
| 2020 | 1,268 | +11% | 3.5% |
| 2021 | 1,212 | −4% | 2.9% |
| 2022 | 1,182 | −2% | 2.7% |
| 2023 | 1,061 | −10% | 2% |
| 2024 | 1,020 | −4% | 1.8% |
| 2025 | 985 | −3% | 1.5% |
Published decisions only: the series reflects what the court publishes as well as what it decides. Series start in 2013, the first year of the current court map.
Areas of law
Each decision published on rechtspraak.nl carries area-of-law labels: broad groups (administrative law, civil law, public international law) and detailed areas. The table counts the decisions of Hoge Raad 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.
Of the 985 decisions published in 2025, 71% carry the administrative-law label and 29% the civil-law label. Among the detailed areas, tax law (699, 71%), contract and liability law (65, 6.6%) and family law (57, 5.8%) appear most often. Detailed labels are attached to only part of the decisions: the areas below carry 923 labels for the court's 985 decisions. Decisions with the tax law label numbered 699, 3% more than in 2024; they are 14% of the 5,173 published decisions with this label across the 19 courts.
| Area of law | Decisions 2025 | Share of the court | Change | Share of all decisions with this label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Administrative law | 701 | 71% | +3% | 1.8% |
| Civil law | 284 | 29% | −17% | 1.1% |
| Public international law | 1 | 0.1% | – | 4.3% |
| Tax law | 699 | 71% | +3% | 14% |
| Contract and liability law | 65 | 6.6% | +12% | 1.1% |
| Family law | 57 | 5.8% | +90% | 0.8% |
| Civil procedure | 42 | 4.3% | −9% | 7.1% |
| Employment law | 16 | 1.6% | – | 1.5% |
| Private international law | 12 | 1.2% | – | 18% |
| Company law | 11 | 1.1% | – | 3.4% |
| Insolvency law | 6 | 0.6% | – | 0.6% |
| Property law | 5 | 0.5% | – | 3.5% |
| Intellectual property law | 5 | 0.5% | – | 4.1% |
| Public procurement law | 2 | 0.2% | – | 2.4% |
| Competition law (civil) | 2 | 0.2% | – | 14% |
| Administrative procedure | 1 | 0.1% | – | under 0.1% |
See also Tax law Contract and liability law Family law Civil procedure
A decision can carry several area labels and some carry only a broad one: counts of different areas cannot be added together.
Place in the court system
The Hoge Raad is the court of last resort. Its published decisions are set beside those of the other highest courts below.
In civil and tax cases it mainly reviews rulings of the courts of appeal: Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden, Gerechtshof Amsterdam, Gerechtshof 's-Hertogenbosch and Gerechtshof Den Haag. Its rulings are final: they cannot be appealed to another Dutch court. In 2025, the 4 highest courts published 9,122 decisions in all, of which 985 by Hoge Raad (11%).
| Court | Decisions 2025 | Share of the highest courts | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raad van State | 5,549 | 61% | +7% |
| Centrale Raad van Beroep | 1,900 | 21% | −22% |
| Hoge Raad | 985 | 11% | −3% |
| College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven | 688 | 7.5% | −28% |
See also Gerechtshof Arnhem-Leeuwarden Gerechtshof Amsterdam Gerechtshof 's-Hertogenbosch Gerechtshof Den Haag Raad van State Centrale Raad van Beroep College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven Netherlands overview
Published decisions only: each court publishes a different share of its rulings, so these counts are not caseloads and cannot be compared as workloads.
Understanding these figures
What the Supreme Court does
The Hoge Raad is the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. It hears appeals in cassation: it does not re-examine the facts but checks whether the lower court applied the law correctly and gave sufficient reasons. In 2025, Hoge Raad published 985 decisions; of these, 71% carry the administrative-law label and 29% the civil-law label.
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. The 985 decisions counted for Hoge Raad in 2025 are those published; this is not a count of all the cases the court handled.
ECLI numbers and the court code
An ECLI number has the form ECLI:NL:<court code>:<year>:<number>. The decisions of Hoge Raad carry the court code HR, so their numbers begin ECLI:NL:HR, followed by the year and a sequence number. With this number, any published decision of the court can be found on rechtspraak.nl.
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.
Reading this court's figures with care
About 71% of the decisions published by Hoge Raad in 2025 carry the tax law label, so its count mainly reflects that field. The count also depends on what the court publishes: a change from one year to the next may reflect a change in publication as well as in the court's work. The data hold counts only, with no outcome and no time to judgment, and no statistic can predict the outcome of a particular case.
Frequently asked questions
How many decisions did Hoge Raad publish in 2025?
Hoge Raad (Supreme Court of the Netherlands) published 985 decisions on rechtspraak.nl in 2025, against 1,020 in 2024. Published decisions are a selection of all rulings, so this is not the number of cases the court handled.
Which areas of law do the published decisions of Hoge Raad cover?
Of its published decisions, 71% carry the administrative-law label and 29% the civil-law label. The most frequent detailed areas are tax law (699), contract and liability law (65) and family law (57).
What share of the published Dutch decisions comes from Hoge Raad?
1.5% of the 64,124 decisions published by the 19 courts covered here in 2025, against 6.2% in 2013.
Does this count every case handled by Hoge Raad?
No. The figures count decisions published on rechtspraak.nl, a selection of all rulings. They do not measure the court's caseload.
Can the rulings of the Hoge Raad be appealed?
No. The Hoge Raad is the Supreme Court of the Netherlands and its rulings cannot be appealed to another Dutch court.