The Dutch governing coalition has introduced groundbreaking legislation to fundamentally restructure the nation’s prosecutorial system. The proposed initiative law would replace the current single Prosecutor General position with a College of Prosecutors General comprising between two to four members.
This reform represents a significant institutional strengthening of the prosecutorial function within the Dutch judicial system. Where the Prosecutor General was previously exclusively attached to the Court of Justice, the new framework expands this role to include the Supreme Court (Hoge Raad), which is also being introduced into the judicial structure.
The College will be formally designated as the head of the Public Prosecution Service, representing the state in legal matters and overseeing judicial police operations. The legislation additionally proposes lowering the mandatory retirement age for prosecutors from 70 to 65 years.
This reorganization addresses what coalition members describe as decades of organizational fragmentation within the Public Prosecution Service and its previous dependence on ministerial directives. The new framework establishes clear, centralized authority intended to create a more robust institutional foundation.
The explanatory memorandum accompanying the sweeping proposal indicates that the current structure provides insufficient opportunities for the Public Prosecution Service to develop institutionally. By explicitly linking the Prosecutor General to both the Supreme Court and strengthening the College, the system aims to better prepare for:
– Increasingly complex criminal cases involving political and economic dimensions
– Cassation procedures requiring superior legal quality
– More independent operations, particularly in sensitive cases
The proposed constitutional amendment would fundamentally alter the Prosecutor General’s position within the judicial organization. The modification of Articles 141 and 142 would replace the phrase ‘the Prosecutor General at the Court of Justice’ with ‘the Prosecutor General at the Supreme Court and at the Court of Justice’ throughout legal texts.
This dual anchoring positions the Prosecutor General at a crucial junction between the highest factual instance (Court of Justice) and the future highest judicial authority in law (Supreme Court). The reform makes clear that the Public Prosecution Service will no longer merely play a supporting role within the Court but will become an integral component of the new cassation hierarchy, effectively creating the only functionary institutionally connected to both top levels of the judiciary.