Council of Ministers appoint new Judges for Joint Court

May 14, 2016

THE HAGUE–The Kingdom Council of Ministers has approved the appointment of Henk Lubberdink and Joop Drop as new Acting Judges in the Joint Court of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten, and of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba.

The Council of Ministers followed the recommendation of Minister Ard van der Steur of Security and Justice to appoint these two Judges as per August 1.
Lubberdink (1951) and Drop (1963) are both members of the Dutch Council of State. Since September 2006, Lubberdink is Chairman of the Council’s Foreigners Chamber (Vreemdelingenkamer), which handles cases involving refugees and other persons with non-Dutch nationality.
Drop is working for the Council of State’s branch dealing with administrative law. He was also previously a member of the Joint Court.
Lubberdink and Drop will be replacing Judge Loeb, who will be going in retirement. Loeb also was a member of the Council of State, who travelled regularly to the Dutch Caribbean to provide over administrative appeal cases.
The Council of Ministers also appointed Alexander van Dam as Solicitor General with the Prosecutor’s Office in Aruba, as per June 1. He was recommended for appointment by Minister Ronald Plasterk of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations.
Van Dam is currently Acting Chief Prosecutor in the Zeeland/West-Brabant region. He will be replacing Marc van Erve, who was Acting Solicitor General until November 26, 2015.
The Joint Court of Justice will be presenting its 2015 annual report to the media on Wednesday, at the Courthouse in Willemstad, Curaçao. The report will be presented by Joint Court President Evert Jan van der Poel, Acting President of the Court of First Instance in Curaçao Eunice Saleh, and Interim Director of the Business Office Nadine Calister-Presentacion.