Civil court procedures in English

As of January 1st 2016 the Rotterdam District Court will allow certain types of civil cases to be conducted in the English language. The cases that will qualify for this pilot project are those involving maritime law, transport law and international sale of goods.

The Maritime Chamber of the Rotterdam District Court is specialized in these types of court procedures. Often these cases involve international parties and they will now be able to jointly request the Rotterdam District Court for a procedure in English instead of Dutch.

The main goal of the pilot is to ascertain whether proceedings held in English fulfill a need that exists in international trade. The pilot will last one and a half years.  The applicable procedure rules in Dutch and in English can be found here.

Since last October the Rotterdam District Court has started publishing summaries in English of civil court rulings issued by its Maritime Chamber. Many of these rulings are in the fields of maritime law, transport law and international trade. These cases are of international significance.

By providing summaries in English, the court also enables foreign corporations, legal researchers and lawyers to inform themselves about relevant court rulings.

The most recent English summaries can be found here:

http://deeplink.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak?id=ECLI:NL:RBROT:2015:6868
http://deeplink.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraak?id=ECLI:NL:RBROT:2015:7496