Extra 1 September nerves for Belgium's Justice system: the new Criminal Code takes effect

The new Criminal Code has a major impact on the daily work of judges, prosecutors, courts, lawyers, the police and the prison service. Naturally, this also affects the IT systems supporting the justice system.

This reform is more than a legislative update. It fundamentally modernises how the justice system operates, how sentences are enforced and how technology supports criminal justice.

From an organisational perspective, this may be one of the most important benefits for Belgium's Federal Public Service Justice - FPS Justice.

The new code follows a uniform structure, introduces standardised sentencing levels and makes the legal classification of offences more consistent.

This makes it much easier to build IT systems than working within a fragmented criminal law framework.

The 1867 Criminal Code is being replaced by a more modern framework, with several fundamental changes:

• Eight sentencing levels: The traditional distinction between contraventions, misdemeanours and felonies is replaced by a system of eight levels. All are now referred to as 'offences'.
  For level 1 offences, such as insulting a public official, imprisonment is no longer an option.

• New offences: Acts such as ecocide, involving severe and long-lasting environmental damage, incitement to suicide and grooming are now explicitly punishable.

• Tougher penalties for certain offences: Penalties are increased for several categories of crime, including serious sexual offences, terrorism, domestic violence and violence against people performing a public service, such as emergency responders.

• Sentencing and enforcement: Imprisonment becomes the 'ultimum remedium' or last resort. Greater scope is given to alternative sentences, such as community service and electronic monitoring.

• Criminal participation: The distinction between perpetrators and accomplices is replaced by the categories of 'perpetrators' and 'participants'.

• Financial penalties linked to criminal gain: A notable innovation is the option to impose a financial penalty linked to the benefit gained from the crime. In certain cases, this can amount to three times that benefit.

• Seperating offence classifications from aggravating circumstances: Basic offence qualifications and aggravating circumstances are kept strictly separate. This creates a more transparent system in which each aggravating factor, such as breaking and entering in a theft case, is assigned a clearly defined level. This has made it possible to establish an unambiguous link between police codes and the Justice system's offence classification codes. Before the new Criminal Code was introduced, staff at the criminal prosecution office had to enter the legal classification manually, a time-consuming and error-prone process.

• Automated document generation: A major benefit is the automatic generation of summonses and final prosecution submissions. Offence qualifications have been restructured more logically, enabling JustOne to compile these documents correctly, including all aggravating circumstances.

• Smart calculations: Once a start date is entered, JustOne automatically calculates subsequent dates, for example for driving bans or probation periods. The system now handles considerably more calculations than before, each based on needs identified by users themselves.

• From paper-based processes to digital task tracking: Processes have been redesigned with digitalisation as the starting point. Instead of waiting for a document to physically arrive at their desk, users can find their tasks in dedicated tracking overviews. This already enables a paperless way of working.

• Status chips: In JustOne’s new interface, legal remedies, such as appeals or challenges to default judgments, are displayed using colour-coded indicators. This makes it easier to see the status of a case at a glance.

• A clear overview of sentence enforcement: Fine detail screens now show the enforcement status, outstanding balance and automatically calculated substitute penalty at a glance.