Declaraciones
Artículos: 2,4,8,11,14,16,17,23
In accordance with Article 4, paragraphs 3 and 4, at Aruba no Letters of Request in French will be accepted, unless accompanied by a translation into Dutch, English or Spanish.Moreover, at Aruba the Convention will be applied under the same declarations introduced at the ratification of the Convention by the Kingdom of the Netherlands for the Kingdom in Europe on 8 April 1981.
Declarations made by the Netherlands at the time of ratification:
(Translation)
In the Netherlands the Convention shall be applied as follows:
(...)
Article 4
Letters of Request will be accepted in Dutch, German, English or French, or if they are accompanied by a translation into one of these languages.
The Netherlands does not undertake to translate documents for the execution of a Letter of Request.
Article 8
Members of the judicial personnel of another Contracting State may be present at the execution of a Letter of Request provided that the court which is responsible for execution authorizes this and provided that any conditions which the court may impose are respected.
Article 11
Only the court which is responsible for executing the Letter of Request shall be competent to decide whether any person concerned by the execution has a privilege or duty to refuse to give evidence under the law of a State other than the State of origin; no such privilege or duty exists under Dutch law.
Article 14
Fees paid to experts and interpreters and costs occasioned by the use of a special procedure requested by the State of origin under Article 9, paragraph 2, of the Convention shall be borne by the State of origin.
Article 16
In the Netherlands, no prior permission is required for the taking of evidence as provided for in Article 16.
Article 17
The permission referred to in Article 17 must be requested from the President of the District Court in the area in which evidence is to be taken. If evidence is to be taken from witnesses or experts, the area in question will be that in which the witnesses or experts, or the majority of them, reside. If the President gives permission, he may impose any conditions which he considers necessary to ensure that the evidence is taken in a proper manner. He may decide that the evidence should be taken at the court, under the supervision of a judge designated by him. Permission will only be granted if the following conditions are met:
(a) the witness or expert concerned must have been duly summoned; the summons must be in Dutch or must be accompanied by a Dutch translation and must contain:
– the facts of the case and a summary of the proceedings in connection with which the evidence is to be taken, and details of the court which has requested the evidence;
– a statement to the effect that there is no obligation for the witness or expert to appear, and that if he refuses to appear, to take an oath, to give his word of honour or to give evidence, he will not incur any penalty or measure of any kind, either in the Netherlands or in the State where the proceedings have been instituted;
– a statement to the effect that the person concerned may be legally represented;
– a statement to the effect that in so far as the person concerned has a privilege or duty to refuse to give evidence, he may do so;
– a statement to the effect that the commissioner will reimburse expenses incurred by the witness or expert in connection with his appearance to give evidence.
(b) A copy of the summons must be forwarded to the President.
(c) The request for permission must state the reasons why the taking of evidence has been entrusted to a commissioner and it must state the commissioner's official status unless he is a lawyer competent to practice in the Netherlands.
(d) The costs of taking the evidence, i.e. the expenses of the witnesses, experts or interpreters, must be reimbursed in full.
Article 23
The Netherlands will not execute Letters of Request issued for the purpose of obtaining pre-trial discovery of documents as known in common law countries.
For the purposes of Article 23 of the Convention, "Letters of Request issued for the purpose of obtaining pre-trial discovery of documents as known in common law countries", which the Netherlands will not execute, are defined by the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as being any Letters of Request which require a person:
(a) to state which of the documents which are of relevance to the proceedings to which the Letter of Request relates have been in his possession, custody or power; or
(b) to produce any document other than particular documents specified in the Letter of Request as being documents which the court which is conducting the proceedings believes to be in his possession, custody or power.
Article 26
The Netherlands will request that any State of origin which has made a request pursuant to paragraph 1 of Article 26 should reimburse the fees and costs to which this paragraph refers.