Types of courts in Belgium

I’d like to retake unit 1. In the lessons, we learnt about the English courts. As we know, Belgium has also a court system: I’ll discuss it shortly for you. At the lowest level, we have the Police court and the justice of the peace court. A justice of the peace court deals with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions while the Police Court deals with minor offences, infractions and traffic offenses. This law court also deals with traffic accidents related to compensation claims.
On the next level, we find the labour courts, the first instance courts and the commercial courts. The labour courts are dealing with disputes between employers and employees and disputes regarding social security. Secondly, the first instance courts: the courts of first instance consist of three divisions: the Civil Court, the Correctional Court and the Juvenile Court. The last one on this level is the commercial court. The commercial court is a court which deals with commercial litigation that exceeds the competence of the Justice of the Peace Court.
Just before the courts of highest instance, we still have the appellate courts: these consist of the labour appellate courts, the courts of appeal and the courts of Assize. The labour appellate courts are the courts that judge appeals against decisions of the Labour Court. Next, we have the courts of appeal: The Court of Appeal judges appeals against decisions of the Courts of First Instance and the Commercial. Last but not least: serious criminal cases, political offences and crimes of international law (genocide and crimes against humanity) are dealt by the Courts of Assize, The court consists of three judges and 12 jurors. It is the only court in Belgium in which cases are heard by a jury. The courts are located in each of the ten provinces of Belgium and do not have a permanent structure but are constituted for each specific case.
At last, we have the court of highest instance. The Court of Cassation is the highest appeal level, dealing only with points of law, no new facts can be brought before this court. The court consists of three chambers in which each chamber has a french and a dutch division. Each division of a chamber is lead by a chairman and consist of 5 or 6 judges.
Theoretically, we’ve had the most important courts. To make it more clear, I’ll give you an example of a possible law suit in Belgium. The article is about the family Pfaff. Last year, Kelly Pfaff had an interview with ‘Dag Allemaal’. The week after their interview, it was said in the magazine that the bankruptcy of her story was the fault of her former friend and business partner. She couldn’t bare being accused and she’s prosecuting Dag allemaal for slander. According to a law specialist, this case could get judged by the Court of Appeal.
What’s my own opinion about this? I found it very hard to believe when I read this. According to the European rights of human kind, we have freedom of speech. Apparently, we don’t. Our freedom of speech is limited by the law. If someone doesn’t like what an other human’s saying, they can prosecute. In what kind of world are we living? Everyone should have the right to express their opinion. Another person shouldn’t have a problem with that. Although, I have to admit that I don’t like people talking behind my back. That’s just not fair to the person you’re talking about. On the other hand, I understand the woman’s point of view. If it’s not true what someone’s telling, you should stop the gossip.
As conclusion, I must say I don’t agree with this law case because the business partner was a friend of Kelly Pfaff. This woman should have known she would get some attention of the media. If she can’t cope with this kind of behaviour, she should have never started a business with Kelly Pfaff.

Sources:
http://www.tv-visie.be/nieuws/belgie/pfaffs-artikel-inzet-van-rechtszaak-tegen-hoofdredactrice-dag-allemaal_32919/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court
http://www.lexadin.nl/wlg/courts/nofr/eur/lxctbel.htm#Minor Courts Justices of the Peace