ABSTRACT
The legal system of the Netherlands derives from the civil law tradition characterised by a strong role of legislature and the primacy of statutory law, the majority of which is codified. As such, Dutch law combines elements characteristic for French and German legal families, where the latter is considered to have predominant influence on the Dutch legal system. The Netherlands is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a decentralised unitary structure, where multiple competences are delegated to the local authorities, at the provincial and municipal level. In the Netherlands, the relationship between international and domestic law is rooted in the monistic tradition. The Netherlands signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on March 30, 2007, making several interpretative declarations to the selected provisions of the Convention, including Article 12 on the right to equal recognition before the law.
