ABSTRACT
Judges across the world are increasingly confronted with the requirements of efficiency in criminal cases. This trend is often associated with the growing influence of New Public Management (NPM) values on the administration of criminal justice. It is suggested inter alia that as a result of increasing managerialism, the traditional ‘active’ role of the trial judge in inquisitorial proceedings is under threat.
In this chapter we focus on the Dutch culture of criminal trials and in particular, the role of the traditionally inquisitorial judge. We conclude that recent developments driven by NPM values reinforce and legitimise certain negative aspects of this culture. In practice, judges in the Netherlands are less active than in other inquisitorial systems, for example, they make little use of their ex officio powers to direct criminal investigations, order additional research and they rarely hear witnesses at trial. This de facto limited role with regard to fact-finding is a long-standing cultural feature, and not the result of recent ‘managerialist’ interferences with the traditional values of inquisitorial process, as it has been suggested in other contexts.
