Dutch court rulings
An open API with all published rulings of Dutch courts: the full text in XML, with area of law, court, case number, date of ruling and a short summary. On 15 October 2026 the index held 3,778,296 ECLIs, of which 967,399 with the text of the ruling. New ones are added every day.
Published rulings per court: most Rechtbank Den Haag (19,288 rulings), then Rechtbank Zeeland-West-Brabant and Rechtbank Rotterdam
Published rulings per court, 2025, in rulings. Total: 81,734; the largest 12 of 20 categories are shown. Rechtbank Den Haag is 24% of the total. Counted per court: district courts, courts of appeal, Supreme Court (and its Procurator General), Council of State, Central Appeals Tribunal and Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal, together 80,130 rulings; the rest come from disciplinary boards and other bodies. Only rulings published with text, by date of ruling.
Published court rulings: 81,734 rulings per year in 2025, 15 times as much as in 2000
Published court rulings, 2000 – 2025, in rulings per year. That is the highest point in the series.
What can you do with it?4 ideas
What happened in court today?
Request the rulings of the past day, newest first. Each entry has a summary and a link to the full text.
How many criminal cases does each court publish?
Filter on criminal law and per court, and count per year. In 2025, 81,704 rulings with text went online (all areas of law). Compare which courts publish a lot or little.
Follow a topic over the years
Fetch the text of all rulings in an area of law and search for a word, such as 'bank helpdesk fraud' or 'rent increase'. That shows when a phenomenon reaches the courts.
Compare sentences
Extract the sentences from rulings on the same offence and compare them per court. Always read a handful of rulings yourself to check your text extraction.
How to process it5 steps
Search the ECLI index
The search API returns an Atom feed of ECLIs. With return=DOC you only get rulings that have text; max is at most 1,000, use from to page.
https://data.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraken/zoeken?max=10&return=DOC&sort=DESC
Filter on area of law, court and date
Filters are addresses (URIs) from the value lists. Give a period with date twice. Mind the case: rechtsgebied#strafrecht works, #strafRecht returns 0.
https://data.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraken/zoeken?max=10&return=DOC&subject=http://psi.rechtspraak.nl/rechtsgebied%23strafrecht&creator=http://standaarden.overheid.nl/owms/terms/Rechtbank_Amsterdam&date=2026-01-01&date=2026-10-15
Look at the value lists
All courts and areas of law with their URIs are in separate XML lists.
https://data.rechtspraak.nl/Waardelijst/Rechtsgebieden
Fetch the ruling itself
Per ECLI you get one XML file: first the metadata (RDF), then the text. With return=META only the metadata. An unknown ECLI returns 404.
https://data.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraken/content?id=ECLI:NL:RBLIM:2026:11142&return=META
Keep up with the modification date
Rulings are changed afterwards. Use modified twice to request everything that changed in a period, instead of reloading everything.
https://data.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraken/zoeken?max=100&modified=2026-10-14T00:00:00&modified=2026-10-15T00:00:00
Interesting combinations
Similar sources
open.overheid.nl (FOI documents)Also full-text documents, but from government: FOI decisions and released papers, not court rulings.
CBS StatLineCBS had counts of settled cases (table 70229ned, 1995 to 2016, discontinued). Numbers, not rulings.
What to watch out for
- Not every ruling is included
The database holds published rulings, not all rulings. Of over 3 million ECLIs only key data are known (number, court, case number, date); 967,399 have text (15 October 2026). A count says something about what was published.
- Anonymised, and keep it that way
Names of suspects, victims and witnesses are replaced by labels such as [verdachte] and [slachtoffer 3]. Do not try to re-identify people by combining rulings with other sources.
- XML, not JSON
Search returns Atom (XML), a ruling is XML with RDF metadata. Big criminal cases run to hundreds of kilobytes. Only fetch text for the ECLIs you need.
- The ruling date is not the publication date
A September ruling may go online in October. sort orders by modification date, the date filter uses the ruling date. Recent years are still growing.
- rechtspraak.nl refuses scripts
www.rechtspraak.nl (including the open data documentation) returned 403 to our script. data.rechtspraak.nl and uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl do work.
APIREST (Atom en XML met RDF) · read 16 Oct 2026
No key or account. tested
ECLIs in the index, of which 967,666 with text (return=DOC), 16 Oct 2026 tested
atomxml
Base URL
https://data.rechtspraak.nl
Endpoints 5
- GET
/uitspraken/zoekenSearch the ECLI index: Atom feed with per entry the ECLI, a title (court, date, case number), the summary and the modification date. The total is in subtitle ("Aantal gevonden ECLI's: N"). - GET
/uitspraken/content?id={ECLI}One ruling or opinion as XML: RDF metadata (court, dates, case number, procedure, area of law, citations, relations) plus summary and the full text. - GET
/uitspraken/content?id={ECLI}&return=METAMetadata only, without text. - GET
/Waardelijst/{Instanties|Rechtsgebieden|Proceduresoorten|Formelerelaties}The code lists with URI and name; Instanties also with type, start and end date. - GET
/Waardelijst/NietNederlandseUitsprakenList of non-Dutch rulings that are referred to (3.5 MB).
Filtering tested
Query parameters, no query language. Filter values are URIs from the value lists; give a range by repeating the parameter (date=…&date=…). There is no full-text search: q and procedure were ignored (total stayed 3,779,185).
Parameters 10
max | Number of entries, at most 1,000 (max=2000 did not return more). | experience |
from | Offset, starts at 0. | experience |
sort | ASC or DESC, on modification date. Any other value returns 400 with a JSON validation error. | tested |
return | DOC = only ECLIs with text (967,666). Without return: all ECLIs (3,779,185). return=META returns 400 on search. | tested |
type | Uitspraak (3,703,524) or Conclusie (75,661). | tested |
date | Ruling date YYYY-MM-DD. Once = that day (2026-10-01: 460), twice = a period (1–5 Oct 2026: 1,399). | tested |
modified | Modification date YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS. Once = from that moment (2,489), twice = a window (1,216 between 15 and 16 Oct 2026). Use this to stay up to date. | tested |
subject | Area of law as URI, e.g. http://psi.rechtspraak.nl/rechtsgebied#strafrecht (# as %23). Case-sensitive: #strafrecht 539,117, #strafRecht 0. | tested |
creator | Court as OWMS URI, e.g. http://standaarden.overheid.nl/owms/terms/Hoge_Raad_der_Nederlanden (with DOC 50,995). | tested |
replaces | Old LJN number; returns the ECLI that replaces it (an unknown value gave 0). | tested |
Fields in the feed and in a ruling (selection) 13
| Name | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
entry/id | string | ECLI (ECLI:NL:RBROT:2026:10355) |
entry/title | string | ECLI, instantie, uitspraakdatum, zaaknummer |
entry/summary | string | Inhoudsindicatie (kan leeg zijn) |
entry/updated | datetime | Laatste wijziging |
dcterms:creator | uri | Content: instantie (resourceIdentifier = OWMS-URI) |
dcterms:date | date | Content: uitspraakdatum |
dcterms:issued | date | Content: publicatiedatum |
psi:zaaknummer | string | Content: zaaknummer |
psi:procedure | uri | Content: proceduresoort (eersteAanlegEnkelvoudig …) |
dcterms:subject | uri | Content: rechtsgebied (kan meerdere keren voorkomen) |
dcterms:spatial | string | Content: zittingsplaats |
dcterms:hasVersion | lijst | Content: vindplaatsen (tijdschriften, Rechtspraak.nl) |
Show all 13
| Name | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
uitspraak / conclusie | xml | Content: de geanonimiseerde tekst, na inhoudsindicatie |
Limits and pitfalls
- No documented rate limit. A count (max=1) takes about 0.1 to 0.2 s; fetch texts only for the ECLIs you need (large criminal cases are hundreds of kB). tested
- You can count without fetching everything: max=1 and read the number from subtitle. tested
- An unknown sequence number for an existing court (ECLI:NL:RBROT:2026:999999) returned 404; an unknown court code returned 200 with an empty RDF. Check there is a dcterms:identifier. tested
- Areas of law overlap (a ruling can have several); courts don't. Count per court if you want totals to add up. experience
- The Instanties value list also contains abolished courts; 78 have no end date, including some historical ones. experience
- www.rechtspraak.nl (including the open data explanation) returns 403 to scripts (Akamai). data.rechtspraak.nl has no robots.txt (404) and works; don't work around it. tested
Try it HTTP 200 · 393 ms · 16 Oct
https://data.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraken/zoeken?max=3&return=DOC&sort=DESC&subject=http://psi.rechtspraak.nl/rechtsgebied%23strafrecht
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"><title type="text">Rechtspraak Open Data (Uitspraken)</title><subtitle type="text">Aantal gevonden ECLI's: 193253</subtitle><id>uuid:5b01cb41-1e98-4491-bd0d-5ae1096cc8be;id=18408</id><rights type="text">Copyright 2026 Rechtspraak.</rights><updated>2026-10-16T23:47:08+02:00</updated><entry><id>ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2026:2945</id><title type="text">ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2026:2945, Gerechtshof Amsterdam, 15-10-2026, K25/230438</title><summary type="text">art. 12 Sv; afwijzing beklag over niet-vervolging van betrokken verbalisanten en officier(en) van justitie in het politieonderzoek 13 Adelanto ter zake van valsheid in geschrift en het valselijk opmaken van ambtsedige processen-verbaal</summary><updated>2026-10-16T14:54:35Z</updated><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/details?id=ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2026:2945" /></entry><entry><id>ECLI:NL:HR:2026:1578</id><title type="text">ECLI:NL:HR:2026:1578, Hoge Raad, 06-10-2026, 24/01620</title><summary type="text">Opzettelijk niet betalen van omzetbelasting, art. 69a.1 AWR. 1. Ontvankelijkheid OM en hetzelfde feit, art. 243.2 en 255.1 Sv jo. art.
Shortened response, saved at harvest time. Click the URL for the real, current response.
Read from Value list of courts (261) with their URI for the creator filter · Value list of areas of law (32) with URI for the subject filter · Value list of procedure types (44) · Value list of formal relations between rulings (appeal, cassation …). Labels: from the description stated in what the api itself publishes. tested from our own small call. platform applies to every api on this platform, per its documentation. experience learned while building open data index.
How to fetch it
curl "https://data.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraken/zoeken?max=5&return=DOC&sort=DESC&subject=http://psi.rechtspraak.nl/rechtsgebied%23strafrecht"
More from Rechtspraak in our index
1 datasets in data.overheid.nl. These changed most recently.
- Uitspraken rechtspraak.nl2026-02-05
More in this topic
See how this page is built
bron: rechtspraak-uitspraken
blokken: []
secties:
- ideeen
- verwerken
- koppelingen
- vergelijkbaar
- beperkingen
- code
cache:
tag: bron:rechtspraak-uitspraken
ververs: na statuscheck, als de bron nieuwer is
statuscheck:
methode: "Atom-feed: nieuwste gewijzigde uitspraak (sort=DESC) en het aantal
ECLI's met tekst"
verwacht: dagelijks
Source: content/bronnen/rechtspraak-uitspraken.yaml · Markdown