Samenvatting

Article 12 of the Dutch Criminal Code of Procedure allows citizens to complain against non-prosecution. Originally, this procedure had been intended as a correction mechanism against the monopoly position of the Public Prosecution Service and its discretionary power. Later, the private interests of complainants became more central, so that the procedure gained an important societal function. This paper examines a new societal function of the complaint procedure in socially sensitive cases. Through interviews with complainants and their lawyers in four case studies – the Wilders-case, the Martijn-case, the Libor-case and the case Henriquez – it argues that a new democratic function of the article 12 Sv procedure emerges from within a traditionally liberal criminal justice system.