Benelux Court of Justice

The Benelux Court of Justice (Dutch: Benelux Gerechtshof, French: Cour de Justice Benelux) is a court, which is common to the Benelux countries Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. The organisation was established by the treaty of 31 March 1965. The court's budget rests with the Benelux Union and has historically been composed of judges of the supreme courts of the three countries. The court is mainly tasked with answering requests for preliminary rulings from the supreme courts regarding regulations which are common to the three countries and serves as a civil service tribunal for personal of the Benelux Economic Union and the Benelux Organization for Intellectual Property (BOIP), although it may also be tasked with advising the three governments, and with direct judicial tasks following the entry into force of a 2012 protocol to the treaty.

The court consists of nine judges which are part of the high courts of the countries: the Hoge Raad in the Netherlands, Court de Cassation in Belgium and Luxembourg. The court furthermore has three Advocates General, that give advisory opinions in certain cases.

After a 2012 enters into force, the activities will be organized in three chambers: the First Chamber composed of at least 9 judges of the high courts of the three countries and dealing with preliminary questions of the high courts, as well as appeals from decisions of the second chamber. The Second Chamber will be composed of at least 6 judges of the Courts of Appeal of the three countries, and is to hear cases in first instance after specific treaties have attributed direct jurisdiction to the court. The use of two chambers within an international court have been modelled on the organisation of the Court of Justice of the European Union (where the First Chambre can be compared to the European Court of Justice and the Second Chambre to the General Court). The Third Chambre will be tasked with cases regarding personnel of the Benelux Union and the BOIP.

The court has competence to answer questions regarding laws which are common to the three countries. The competence needs to be explicitly designated in a multilateral treaty, a decision or recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Benelux Union. The court has divided the opinions it has given in nine categories: