WILLEMSTAD – Curaçao has called for the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom to have their own representative on the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, the highest judicial body in the Kingdom. Justice Minister Shalten Hato has proposed that a working group draft concrete recommendations and present potential candidates by January and June 2026. Curaçao will serve as both chair and secretary of the group. Other countries are expected to submit their responses ahead of the Judicial Four-Country Consultation (JVO) in January 2026. The first formal advice to the governments of Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten, and the Netherlands is expected in June 2026.

Unequal Access for Lawyers

While the discussion now focuses on Caribbean representation among judges, there is also ongoing debate about inequality in the legal profession itself. Lawyers from the islands cannot automatically act as cassation lawyers before the Supreme Court. Anyone filing a cassation case is currently required to hire a specialized and more costly Dutch cassation lawyer.

In April 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that lawyers from the islands and those from the European Netherlands may, for now, continue to be treated differently. In the Netherlands, cassation lawyers must complete a long specialized training, undergo annual refresher courses, and are automatically members of the bar association. This system does not yet exist in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. For that reason, the court decided it was logical that Caribbean lawyers cannot automatically qualify as cassation lawyers in civil cases.

However, the Supreme Court stressed that rules and oversight mechanisms should be developed to eventually allow Caribbean lawyers to enter this specialized field.

Curaçao’s push for judicial representation comes at a time when broader discussions are underway about strengthening equality and fairness within the Kingdom’s justice system.