The Court of Cassation ( ; ; ) of Belgium is the supreme court of the Belgian judiciary. The court is composed of thirty judges with life tenure who are nominated by the High Council of Justice of Belgium and appointed by the Belgian federal government. The court handles cases in the two main languages of Belgium, Dutch and French, and provides certain facilities for cases in German. The court is assisted in its work by a public prosecutor's office and a bar association, which both function separately from other structures. The duty of the public prosecutor's office is to provide advisory opinions to the court on how the law ought to be interpreted and applied. The attorneys of the court's bar association assist litigants in proceedings before the court; in certain cases, their assistance is mandatory.
The Belgian Court of Cassation was originally modelled after its French namesake, and its jurisdiction and powers are still very similar to those of its French counterpart. The court is a court of cassation; meaning that it only hears appeals in last resort against decisions of lower courts and tribunals, and only on points of law. This means the Court of Cassation will not review or reconsider the findings of fact established by the lower court or tribunal. The jurisdiction of the court is limited to either upholding a decision that is contested, or annulling (quashing) it because it violated or misinterpreted the law. The latter is referred to as "cassation". By these means, the court is in effect the supreme interpreter of Belgian law, and as such ensures the nationwide uniform interpretation and application of the law by all other courts and tribunals of the Belgian judiciary.
Generally speaking, the Court of Cassation only exercises supreme jurisdiction over judicial decisions, and thus does not hear appeals against administrative decisions (which is the realm of the Council of State of Belgium). The Court of Cassation also does not rule on the constitutionality of laws, which is the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court of Belgium. However, some decisions of certain non-judicial bodies are within the purview of the Court of Cassation nonetheless. The court also settles jurisdictional conflicts which may or may not involve an administrative court. Furthermore, the court rules on certain prejudicial questions from other courts and on certain requests to review old criminal cases. Lastly, the court handles certain proceedings against judicial officers (magistrates; which encompasses judges and prosecutors in Belgian legal terminology), including recusal requests against a particular judge or prosecutor, requests to disqualify a judge or entire court, and requests to hold judges or prosecutors civilly liable for respectively judicial misconduct or prosecutorial misconduct. A ruling or judgment of the Court of Cassation is officially called an "arrest" (, , ).
An important aspect of the Court of Cassation is that it has no discretionary power to select the cases it hears, which means it must consider all cases correctly brought before it. The only filter that exists is the mandatory intervention of an attorney in certain cases. For this reason, the court handles a fairly large number of cases each year compared to some other supreme courts. For example, the court received about 2,500 petitions to initiate proceedings in 2019. A second aspect is that the court does not make public any individual opinions of its judges; it always issues one single ruling in each case. Lastly, the rulings of the court are only binding for the case at hand, and do not have the value of stare decisis. Lower courts are thus not officially required to adhere to the rulings of the Court of Cassation in earlier cases. However, the Court's rulings still have an important persuasive value for lower courts nonetheless; especially any so-called jurisprudence constante following from the court's case law.
Court structure Judges
The Court of Cassation is composed of thirty judges with life tenure (notwithstanding their retirement), who are officially called "counsellors" (, , ). For the sake of clarity, the term 'judge' will be used in this article. The thirty judges are divided into three chambers with each ten judges. The three chambers are each further divided into two sections, a Dutch one and a French one, each composed of five judges. This means that in principle, half of the court's judges are Dutch-speaking and the other half French-speaking. However, some of the judges are required to master both Dutch and French, so as to facilitate joint hearings and sessions of the court. Each of the judges can serve in any of the chambers and sections given they speak the relevant language. Whilst the court counts thirty positions for judges, temporary vacancies can exist when for example one of the court's judges retires. The judges retire when they reach the statutory retirement age of 70.
To be appointed as judge to the court, candidates must hold the Belgian nationality, must hold a law degree, must have been active in the legal sphere for at least fifteen years, and must have been a judge or prosecutor for at least ten years. Candidates must also meet the language requirements and have a clean criminal record. An opinion on each candidate will be provided to the federal Minister of Justice by the general assembly of the Court of Cassation (see further below), by the head of the court or prosecutor's office where the candidate is currently active, and by the relevant bar association. The minister of Justice will then send all candidacies to the High Council of Justice of Belgium, who will nominate one candidate. The Belgian federal government (officially "the King" as the personification of the executive) will then finally appoint or reject the nominated candidate.
In each of the six sections, a judge is appointed as "section president" (, , ). Out of the thirty judges, one is also appointed as "first president" (, , ) and one as "president" (, , ) for the whole Court of Cassation. The overall leadership over the court lies with the first president (the "chief justice"); the president has a deputy position regarding the first president. If the first president belongs to the French-speaking half of the court, the president will be chosen from the Dutch-speaking half and vice versa, so as to preserve the linguistic balance on the court.
As of 2020, the first president of the Court of Cassation is Beatrijs Deconinck (Dutch-speaking) and the president is ridder Jean De Codt (French-speaking). In 2019, Mrs Deconinck became the first female first president in the Court of Cassation's history.
Prosecutor's office
There is a public prosecutor's office attached to the Court of Cassation, which is referred to as the prosecutor-general's office (, , ). The prosecutor-general's office is led by the prosecutor-general at the Court of Cassation (, , ). The prosecutor-general's office furthermore consists of one first advocate-general (, , ), who has a deputy position regarding the prosecutor-general, and eleven advocates-general (, , ). The thirteen members of the prosecutor-general's office exercise the duties of the office in all cases brought before the court (see further below). Just like with the first president and president of the court, if the prosecutor-general belongs to the French-speaking members of the office, the first advocate-general will be chosen from the Dutch-speaking members and vice versa, so as to preserve the linguistic balance on the office.
As of 2020, the prosecutor-general at the Court of Cassation is André Henkes (French-speaking) and the first advocate-general is Ria Mortier (Dutch-speaking).
Bar The Court of Cassation has its own bar association, consisting of a number of "attorneys at the Court of Cassation" (, , ). The number of attorneys at the Court of Cassation is set by the Belgian federal government (currently twenty attorneys). These attorneys, whilst not employed by or part of the court, play an important role in the proceedings before the court nonetheless (see further below). Attorneys wishing to be admitted to the bar at the Court of Cassation, must have been part of another bar association for at least ten years and must pass a specific bar examination. When one of the twenty positions at the bar becomes vacant, the Belgian federal government will appoint a new attorney meeting these criteria to the bar.
The bar association is headed by the president of the bar (, , ). As of 2020, Jacqueline Oosterbosch is president of the bar.
Auxiliary services Administrative matters related to the judicial duties of the Court of Cassation are handled by the court clerks (, , ) of the clerk's office (, , ) of the court. In this capacity, the clerk's office receives petitions and pleadings related to proceedings before the court, keeps the records and notes of the court, and provides the court's rulings to the parties involved.
The Court of Cassation and its prosecutor-general's office also dispose over a number of law clerks called "referendaries" (, , ). The referendaries assist the judges and the members of the prosecutor's office in preparing their rulings and advisory opinions, maintain documentation related to the court's duties, and work on the translation and publication of the court's rulings.
Lastly, the court also employs a number of attachés, as well as magistrates from other courts or tribunals with a temporary assignment. They work on the translation of the court's rulings, on maintaining documentation, and on certain studies and legal research in the interest of the court.
Jurisdiction Appeals in cassation Annulment of court decisions An appeal in cassation (, , ) to the Court of Cassation is only possible against decisions (judgments, rulings and court orders) from other (lower) courts in the judiciary, against which all ordinary appeal procedures have been exhausted. This usually concerns the judgments and rulings rendered by the courts of appeal and the courts of labour, as well as some judgments and rulings rendered by lower courts in specific or petty cases. The Court of Cassation does not re-examine any findings of fact; it will only rule on questions of law concerning the contested decision. Neither can the court change the content of any contested decision. Its jurisdiction is limited to either upholding a contested decision, rendering it final and irrevocable; or either annulling it ("cassation", from the French verb casser, "to break" or "to quash") if the court finds the decision to violate the law. This is the case if the court finds that the decision misjudged or misinterpreted the law, breached essential procedural requirements or ignored formalities prescribed under penalty of nullity. The court can annul the entire decision or only part of it, which is known as "partial cassation" (, , ).
If the court annuls (part of) a decision, it will generally remit the case to a different court of the same rank as the one whose decision was annulled. In specific cases, the case will be remitted to the same court though, which will then rehear the case in a different composition however (meaning by different judges as the first time). After annulment by the Court of Cassation, the (annulled part of the) case is always tried de novo, both on questions of fact and on questions of law, by the court to which it has been referred. Any such court is thus not bound by any findings of fact preceding the cassation proceedings. In some specific instances though, the court will not remit the case to any court for a retrial after cassation, namely when there is nothing left to judge on by virtue of the court's ruling. This is known as "cassation without referral" (, , ). A cassation without referral can for example occur when the court annuls an arrest warrant because it was issued outside of the statutory time limit.