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The Dutch Constitution should be more accessible

The Dutch Constitution is the second oldest constitution in the world after the US Constitution and it dates back to 1814. Wim Voermans, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law and author of the book ‘Our Constitution’ published earlier this year, advocates for a more accessible Constitution.

Almost nobody knows the literal text

Voermans’ book discusses the origins of our constitutional system, explaining for each article what it says and how that agreement was reached at that time.

In this way, Voermans tries to make the inscrutable rules of the Constitution – which are sometimes open to multiple interpretations – more accessible to lay people.

‘Even if you do not know the rules by heart, I do think that people should be able to understand them when they read them. After all, these rules are for us all and by us all’, Voermans said in Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad.

Would you like to know more?

Read the full article in Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch) (€)

Photo by Danika Perkinson on Unsplash

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