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The Netherlands

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The present constitution of the Netherlands dates back to 1815.

Contents 1 History 2 Provisions 2.1 Chapters 3 Statute of the Kingdom 4 Constitution vs. other laws 5 Amending the constitution 6 Full text

The first constitution of the Netherlands, in the sense of a fundamental law, is the 1579 constitution, which established the confederal republic of the Seven United Provinces. The constitution was empowered by the Union of Utrecht, thus by treaty.

After the French invasion of 1794 the Batavian Republic, a unitary state, was proclaimed. On 31 January 1795 it issued a Bill of Rights, the Verklaring der Rechten van den Mensch en van den Burger. On 1 May 1798 a new constitution, the first in the modern formal sense, the Staatsregeling voor het Bataafsche Volk, written by a Constitutional Assembly, went into force, approved by the National Assembly. The Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland, a constitutional monarchy, was established by the Constitutie voor het Koningrijk Holland on 7 August 1806. In 1810 the kingdom was annexed by the French Empire.

After the French troops had been driven out by Russian Cossacks, the new independent state of the Netherlands, a principality, was established by the constitution of 29 March 1814, the Grondwet voor de Vereenigde Nederlanden. William VI of Orange, instated in 1813 as "Sovereign Prince" by acclamation, had first appointed a number of men of good standing as electors and these approved the constitution, written by a commission headed by Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp. On 24 August 1815 William — since 16 March King William I of the Netherlands — having proclaimed himself King of the larger United Netherlands six days earlier, issued the first version of the current constitution, the Grondwet voor het Koningrijk der Nederlanden establishing the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now expanding his realm with the territory of the present state of Belgium, which would again cede from it in 1830. It included a limited unentrenched bill of rights, with freedom of religion as its main point. It had been approved by the new States-General of the Northern Netherlands, but rejected by the majority of appointed electors (796 against 527) of the Southern Netherlands. As 126 however had indicated that they were against because of the (by them still considered too limited) freedom of religion, which was mandatory under the Treaty of Vienna that ordered the union of the Northern and the Southern Netherlands, their votes and those of the men having refused to vote, were added to the minority, and by this infamous "Hollandic Arithmetic" William felt justified to proclaim the new kingdom.

The constitution as it was revised in 1848 is generally considered the original of the version still in force today. Under pressure from the Revolutions of 1848 in surrounding countries, King William II accepted the introduction of ministerial responsibility in the constitution, leading to a system of parliamentary democracy. A commission chaired by Johan Thorbecke was appointed to draft the new constitution. Suffrage was enlarged, as was the bill of rights.

In 1917 manhood suffrage was introduced, in 1919 universal suffrage adopted in the constitution. The last large revision of the constitution occurred in 1983, when social rights were included in the constitution, most articles were reformulated and their sequence changed. The last, minor, changes were made in 2002

Chapter 1 (Basic rights) deals with issues such as equality (article 1), the right to vote, freedom of religion, freedom of education (article 23), freedom of speech, freedom to meet and protest and the right to privacy.

1. Basic rights
2. Government
   1. King
   2. King and ministers
3. States-General
   1. Formation and structure
   2. Procedures
4. Advisory institutions (State Council, General Audit-Office, National Ombudsman and permanent Committees of Advice)
5. Law and administration
   1. Laws and other regulations
   2. Other provisions
6. Administration of justice
7. Lower government (provinces, municipalities, polders in charge of a polder board, and other public bodies)
8. Revision of the constitution

There used to be several additional articles with Roman numbering, however all except articles IX and XIX are now abrogated.

The constitution of the Netherlands is only applicable to the territory in Europe. Each of the three countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands (the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba) has its own constitution. These constitutions are legally subjected to the Statute of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is the constitution of the entire Kingdom. The Statute however mainly describes the relations between the different parts of the Kingdom. In addition it stipulates that each country is obliged to promote human rights and decent governance.

Dutch judges may not test the validity of other laws against the constitution. As a consequence, the Netherlands does not have a Constitutional Court. The reasoning for this is that changes to the law should be made by politicians, since they have a mandate from the people.

International treaties on the other hand may overrule Dutch law, even the constitution, and judges are allowed in most cases to test laws against them.

To amend the constitution, the proposed changes must first be approved by both the Lower and the Upper house of the States-General with a common majority of 50% + one vote. Then parliament must be dissolved and general elections held. After that the proposed changes to the constitution are discussed a second time in both houses of parliament, this time needing a two-thirds majority to approve them. This is intended to give voters a say in the matter. However, parliament has never been dissolved and elections held specially for a constitutional change.

• Dutch version on Wikisource
• http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/nl__indx.html - 1989 and 1972 versions (English)