Look up Dutch court decisions (uitspraken) by ECLI, or search them by court, legal area, date and keywords: court, decision and publication dates, case numbers, legal areas, procedure, the court's own summary (inhoudsindicatie), appeal / cassation / Advocate-General relations, referenced laws, and optionally the full text. Built for AI agents doing legal and compliance research, and for people who want Rechtspraak data as clean JSON.

Price$0.005 per decision returned

DomainCompliance & law

Call itApify API or MCP

Pricing (pay per event): $0.005 per decision returned (decision). An unknown ECLI, bad input or an empty search costs nothing.

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Questions agents ask

“Find Hoge Raad rulings on tenancy law (huurrecht) since 2024 and summarise what each one decided, with links.”

What you get

Field	Type	Meaning
`schema_version`	string	Output schema version.
`ecli`	string	European Case Law Identifier of the decision, e.g. ECLI:NL:HR:2024:123.
`title`	string \| null	Rechtspraak's display title: ECLI, court, decision date and case numbers.
`court`	string \| null	Court (instantie) name, e.g. Hoge Raad, Raad van State, Rechtbank Amsterdam.
`court_code`	string \| null	Court code from the ECLI, e.g. HR, RVS, CRVB, GHAMS, RBAMS.
`court_id`	string \| null	The court's identifier URI in the Rechtspraak value list.
`document_type`	string \| null	"uitspraak" (decision) or "conclusie" (Advocate-General's opinion).
`decision_date`	string \| null	Date of the decision or opinion (uitspraakdatum), YYYY-MM-DD.
`publication_date`	string \| null	Date the text was published on rechtspraak.nl, YYYY-MM-DD.
`modified`	string \| null	Last change to the metadata or text, ISO 8601 (Rechtspraak local time).
`case_numbers`	array	Case numbers (zaaknummers) as published, e.g. ["22/01066"].
`seat`	string \| null	Place of session (zittingsplaats), when given.
`legal_areas`	array	Legal areas (rechtsgebieden), e.g. ["Strafrecht"].
`procedures`	array	Procedure types, e.g. ["Cassatie"], ["Hoger beroep"].
`language`	string \| null	Language code of the metadata record (nl); English translations say so in the summary.
`summary`	string \| null	The court's own summary (inhoudsindicatie) as plain text; null when none.
`relations`	array	Formal relations to other decisions: {ecli, relation (hogerBeroep, cassatie, conclusie, ...), direction (earlier = the other decision is from an earlier instance, later = a later one), outcome (e.g. bekrachtiging/bevestiging, vernietiging, contrair), label, url}.
`references`	array	References to legislation and case law: {type (law, case_law, eu_law, local_regulation), label, identifier (BWB jci or ECLI), bwb_id, article, url}.
`published_in`	array	Where the decision is published (vindplaatsen), e.g. ["Rechtspraak.nl", "NJ 2014/336"].
`replaces`	array	Old identifiers (LJN) this ECLI replaces.
`replaced_by`	string \| null	ECLI that replaces this one, if it was withdrawn.
`has_text`	boolean	Whether rechtspraak.nl publishes the decision text (false = metadata only).
`text_chars`	integer \| null	Length of the full plain text in characters (null without text).
`text`	string \| null	The decision as plain text (includeText only): '## ' section headings, numbering kept, footnotes at the end; cut at maxTextChars.
`text_truncated`	boolean \| null	True when text was cut at maxTextChars; null without includeText.
`source_url`	string	The decision on uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl.
`data_url`	string	The official Open Data XML this row was read from.
`warnings`	array	Caveats in plain words: text cut, metadata only, replaced ECLI, keyword scan limit.
`retrieved_at`	string	When the row was made (ISO 8601, UTC).
`duration_seconds`	number	How long fetching this decision took.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Add this URL to your MCP client (Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ...) to load the Actor as a tool through the Apify hosted MCP server. It signs you in with OAuth or accepts Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>. It works once the Actor is live on the Apify Store.

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=bosco_labs/dutch-case-law

For “Find Hoge Raad rulings on tenancy law (huurrecht) since 2024 and summarise what each one decided, with links.” the agent passes:

{ "query": "huurrecht", "courts": ["HR"], "dateFrom": "2024-01-01", "maxResults": 20 }

stable snake_case fields, ISO dates, null for unknown, a rechtspraak.nl link per decision and per related decision. warnings says in plain words when text was cut, an ECLI has metadata only or was replaced, or a keyword scan hit its limit. An empty search ends with a status message saying why and what to try.

Or call the Apify API: POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/bosco_labs~dutch-case-law/run-sync-get-dataset-items with the input as JSON body. Cost: $0.005 per decision returned.

Input fields

Field	Type	Meaning
`ecli`	string	One or more Dutch ECLIs, separated by commas or spaces, e.g. "ECLI:NL:HR:2024:123" or "ECLI:NL:HR:2024:123, ECLI:NL:RVS:2024:1000" (max 100). Lower case and uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl links also work. One row per ECLI; an unknown ECLI fails at no charge. Empty = search with the fields below (both can be combined: ECLI rows come first).
`query`	string	Words to find in the decision's title and summary (inhoudsindicatie), case-insensitive. Commas separate alternatives, words within one alternative must all appear: "huur, pacht" = huur OR pacht; "ontslag op staande voet" = all four words. Summaries are in Dutch, so use Dutch words. The official API has no full-text search: this filters the newest-updated decisions that match the other filters (up to 10,000 scanned). Empty = no keyword filter.
`courts`	array	Court codes as used in the ECLI, e.g. ["HR"] for the Hoge Raad (Supreme Court); others: PHR (Procureur-Generaal/AG opinions), RVS (Raad van State), CRVB, CBB, GHAMS, GHARL, GHDHA, GHSHE (courts of appeal), RBAMS, RBDHA, RBROT, RBMNE ... (district courts). Full Dutch names also work. Empty = all courts.
`legalAreas`	array	Rechtsgebied names, e.g. ["Strafrecht"], ["Belastingrecht", "Arbeidsrecht"]; English also works: criminal, civil, administrative, tax, employment, immigration, insolvency, family, competition, environmental. A main area includes its sub-areas. Empty = all areas.
`dateFrom`	string	Earliest decision date (uitspraakdatum), YYYY-MM-DD, e.g. "2024-01-01". Empty = no lower limit (to today if dateTo is empty).
`dateTo`	string	Latest decision date, inclusive, YYYY-MM-DD, e.g. "2024-12-31". Empty = today when dateFrom is set, else no limit.
`documentType`	string	"uitspraak" = court decisions only, "conclusie" = opinions of the Advocate-General at the Hoge Raad only. Empty = both.
`maxResults`	integer	Most decisions to return from a search, most recently published or updated first, e.g. 20 (default). One charge per decision returned.
`includeText`	boolean	true = add the full decision as plain text (section headings as '## ', numbered paragraphs kept), cut at maxTextChars. Default false: metadata and summary only (small rows). Same price.
`maxTextChars`	integer	With includeText: cap on the text per decision in characters, e.g. 20000 (default). Longer text is cut and flagged (text_truncated, text_chars gives the full length).

Sources, licence and limits

Where does the data come from? Only from the Open Data service of the Dutch judiciary (Rechtspraak, data.rechtspraak.nl): the ECLI index and the decision XML. Nothing is added, rewritten or summarised; the summary is the court's own inhoudsindicatie.

Which courts? Everything Rechtspraak publishes: Hoge Raad and its Procureur-Generaal (PHR), Raad van State, Centrale Raad van Beroep, College van Beroep voor het bedrijfsleven, the four courts of appeal, the eleven district courts, the Caribbean courts and several disciplinary tribunals, from the 1990s on. Courts publish only a selection of their decisions, so absence from Rechtspraak does not mean a case does not exist.

Personal data? Courts pseudonymise decisions before publishing them: parties and other private persons appear as [eiser], [verdachte], [adres] and so on. This Actor returns the published text as is, adds nothing, links nothing to other sources and offers no search by person. Do not use it to try to re-identify anyone.

How current is it? Live: every run reads data.rechtspraak.nl. New decisions appear the day Rechtspraak publishes them, usually days to weeks after the decision date.

Is this legal advice? No. It returns published decisions and their metadata; it does not interpret them. English translations of some landmark decisions are unofficial (the courts say so in the summary); the Dutch text is authentic.

Limits: 100 ECLIs or 200 search results per run; no full-text search (see above); no filter by procedure type (the API has none; procedures is in every row); text cut at maxTextChars. Rechtspraak asks users to stay under 10 requests per second, so this Actor reads one decision at a time.

Content: decisions of the Dutch courts via Rechtspraak Open Data, https://www.rechtspraak.nl/uitspraken/open-data (court decisions carry no copyright, art. 11 Auteurswet). Text is converted from XML to plain text and long texts are cut where maxTextChars says; nothing else is changed.

Coming soon to the Apify StoreAsk for early access

Dutch Case Law API (Rechtspraak): ECLI lookup, uitspraken

Questions agents ask

Example

Input

Output

What you get

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Input fields

Sources, licence and limits