The European Convention as an Invigorator of Domestic Law in the Netherlands

This article examines the impact of the European Convention on Human Rights on domestic law in the Netherlands, with special regard to criminal procedure. The Convention has contributed to slow but profound transformations in the structure of criminal proceedings and to making these proceedings more adversarial and more rights oriented. It has opened up the Dutch system of criminal justice to the world and forced it to adapt itself to international standards of fairness. As a result, this system has become less naïve, more sophisticated, and more mature. Moreover, the case of the Netherlands illustrates how the Convention acts as a motor of convergence between civil law and common law systems of criminal justice.