International Law

SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS IN THE DUTCH CARIBBEAN (I)

By Karel.Frielink

Attempting to obtain temporary instructions from the court

The procedure for provisional measures in summary proceedings (in Dutch: kort geding), a.k.a. interlocutory proceedings, is an interim injunction procedure before the court. Such proceedings, under Netherlands Antilles law, are aimed at obtaining temporary instructions from the court, not at receiving a final decision in the case.

These proceedings are characterized by their more or less summary character and their relatively quick nature. There is a clear relationship to a procedure on the merits, which always may be instituted and sometimes even must be followed. Provisional measures that are prescribed in summary proceedings may be executed without delay and will, as a rule, end with the judgment in the procedure on the merits, if such procedure is instituted, and will become res judicata.

Summary proceedings are also characterized by their mainly verbal nature. Parties are summoned for a verbal session, after which a judgment will follow in a relatively short period of time. Considering its character as a provisional measure, legal doctrine is of the opinion that is such proceedings courts may, in principle, only render condemnatory judgments, not declaratory ones; in its opinion only in specific cases may constitutive decisions be given.

Karel Frielink / Ursus van Bemmelen
Netherlands Caribbean Attorneys / Lawyers

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Full post as published by Karel's Legal Blog on July 11, 2009 (boomark / email).