Netherlands · District Court of The Hague
Rechtbank Den Haag: published decisions
In 2025, Rechtbank Den Haag (District Court of The Hague) published 18,443 decisions on rechtspraak.nl, 23% more than in 2024. That is 29% of the 64,124 decisions published by the 19 courts covered here. Of the court's decisions, 84% carry the administrative-law label and 16% the civil-law label. These counts describe published case law, not the court's caseload.
- Published decisions in 202518,443+23% over one year
- Share of the Dutch total29%of the 64,124 decisions of the 19 courts
- Administrative law84%of its decisions; civil law: 16%
- Largest detailed areaImmigration law13,770 decisions, 75% of the court's total
Decisions year by year
The chart follows the number of decisions of Rechtbank Den Haag 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, Rechtbank Den Haag published 18,443 decisions, 23% more than in 2024. This is 29% 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 1,486 in 2013 to 18,443 in 2025.
| Year | Decisions | Change | Share of the 19 courts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 1,486 | – | 6.2% |
| 2014 | 1,498 | +1% | 6.1% |
| 2015 | 1,738 | +16% | 6.8% |
| 2016 | 2,179 | +25% | 8.6% |
| 2017 | 2,696 | +24% | 10% |
| 2018 | 3,189 | +18% | 12% |
| 2019 | 2,800 | −12% | 10% |
| 2020 | 5,308 | +90% | 15% |
| 2021 | 6,490 | +22% | 16% |
| 2022 | 7,066 | +9% | 16% |
| 2023 | 12,585 | +78% | 24% |
| 2024 | 15,045 | +20% | 26% |
| 2025 | 18,443 | +23% | 29% |
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 Rechtbank Den Haag 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 18,443 decisions published in 2025, 84% carry the administrative-law label and 16% the civil-law label. Among the detailed areas, immigration law (13,770, 75%), family law (1,379, 7.5%) and social security law (492, 2.7%) appear most often. Detailed labels are attached to only part of the decisions: the areas below carry 17,123 labels for the court's 18,443 decisions. Decisions with the immigration law label numbered 13,770, 20% more than in 2024; they are 84% of the 16,353 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 | 15,574 | 84% | +16% | 40% |
| Civil law | 2,872 | 16% | +81% | 11% |
| Immigration law | 13,770 | 75% | +20% | 84% |
| Family law | 1,379 | 7.5% | +93% | 20% |
| Social security law | 492 | 2.7% | −2% | 12% |
| Contract and liability law | 381 | 2.1% | +76% | 6.5% |
| Planning and environmental law | 313 | 1.7% | +43% | 16% |
| Tax law | 214 | 1.2% | −22% | 4.1% |
| Insolvency law | 176 | 1% | +87% | 17% |
| Employment law | 97 | 0.5% | +45% | 8.9% |
| Intellectual property law | 73 | 0.4% | +18% | 60% |
| Civil service law | 54 | 0.3% | −5% | 47% |
| Civil procedure | 49 | 0.3% | +40% | 8.3% |
| Public procurement law | 32 | 0.2% | −6% | 38% |
| Administrative procedure | 31 | 0.2% | – | 1.2% |
| Company law | 31 | 0.2% | – | 10% |
| Property law | 17 | under 0.1% | – | 12% |
| European civil law | 9 | under 0.1% | – | 12% |
| Private international law | 4 | under 0.1% | – | 6.2% |
| European administrative law | 1 | under 0.1% | – | 33% |
See also Immigration law Family law Social security law Contract and liability law
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
A district court is the first court to hear most cases. Its published decisions are set beside those of the other district courts, and the appeal routes that follow from its rulings are listed.
Civil and tax appeals against its rulings go to the Court of Appeal of The Hague. Administrative appeals go to the Council of State (immigration, planning and environment and most other subjects), the Central Appeals Tribunal (social security and civil service) or the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (economic regulation), depending on the subject. In 2025, the 11 district courts published 48,101 decisions in all, of which 18,443 by Rechtbank Den Haag (38%).
| Court | Decisions 2025 | Share of the district courts | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rechtbank Den Haag | 18,443 | 38% | +23% |
| Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant | 6,076 | 13% | +1% |
| Rechtbank Midden-Nederland | 5,140 | 11% | +12% |
| Rechtbank Rotterdam | 4,612 | 10% | +15% |
| Rechtbank Noord-Holland | 3,548 | 7.4% | +24% |
| Rechtbank Amsterdam | 2,744 | 5.7% | +27% |
| Rechtbank Gelderland | 2,079 | 4.3% | +17% |
| Rechtbank Overijssel | 1,640 | 3.4% | +15% |
| Rechtbank Limburg | 1,463 | 3% | −3% |
| Rechtbank Noord-Nederland | 1,282 | 2.7% | +33% |
| Rechtbank Oost-Brabant | 1,074 | 2.2% | +30% |
See also Gerechtshof Den Haag Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant Rechtbank Midden-Nederland Rechtbank Rotterdam Rechtbank Noord-Holland 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 a district court does
The Netherlands has 11 district courts (rechtbanken), each covering a region. They are the courts of first instance for most cases and are organised in sectors by type of case. A subdistrict sector deals with smaller civil claims and with disputes such as employment and tenancy cases. Rulings in civil and tax cases can be appealed to a court of appeal; in immigration, planning and most other administrative cases, to the Council of State; in social security and civil service cases, to the Central Appeals Tribunal. In 2025, Rechtbank Den Haag published 18,443 decisions; of these, 84% carry the administrative-law label and 16% 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 18,443 decisions counted for Rechtbank Den Haag 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 Rechtbank Den Haag carry the court code RBDHA, so their numbers begin ECLI:NL:RBDHA, 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 75% of the decisions published by Rechtbank Den Haag in 2025 carry the immigration 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 Rechtbank Den Haag publish in 2025?
Rechtbank Den Haag (District Court of The Hague) published 18,443 decisions on rechtspraak.nl in 2025, against 15,045 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 Rechtbank Den Haag cover?
Of its published decisions, 84% carry the administrative-law label and 16% the civil-law label. The most frequent detailed areas are immigration law (13,770), family law (1,379) and social security law (492).
What share of the published Dutch decisions comes from Rechtbank Den Haag?
29% 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 Rechtbank Den Haag?
No. The figures count decisions published on rechtspraak.nl, a selection of all rulings. They do not measure the court's caseload.
Where do appeals against the rulings of Rechtbank Den Haag go?
Civil and tax appeals go to the Gerechtshof Den Haag. Administrative appeals go to the Council of State, the Central Appeals Tribunal or the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal, depending on the subject.