Bringing Criminal Procedure Law to Life: The Sjaak Case

Students experienced the seminars in the course Strafprocesrecht 1 (Criminal Procedure Law 1) as a series of disconnected topics. Besides this, the teaching team wanted to give students a more active role during these sessions. Together with the lecturers, we therefore developed an ongoing case study centred around the fictional fruit trader Sjaak Vos.

Vos imports tropical fruit from Colombia through his company Colombia’s Finest. The police suspect that he may be importing more than just fruit and launch an investigation into his activities. Students take on the role of Vos’s defence lawyer. In Brightspace, they are presented with realistic police reports, messages and emails that gradually reveal more about the case. Students must independently research relevant legislation, case law and other sources to advise Vos and ultimately defend him in court.

Throughout the course, the Sjaak Vos case forms the backbone of the seminars. Each week, a new ‘episode’ of the story is released in Brightspace, introducing a new aspect of the course content covered in lectures. Each episode exists in two variants. Conditional release settings ensure that each student group encounters a different combination of events over the duration of the course.

Based on the developments in their version of the case, each group submits a written pleading every week. Because the case unfolds differently for each group, their analyses and decisions are discussed and compared during the seminars. Students debate the implications of different events and exchange perspectives on the legal strategies they have pursued as defence lawyers.

By actively engaging in discussion about the differences between scenarios, explaining legal consequences to one another and comparing their approaches, students arrive better prepared for seminars and engage more deeply with all aspects of the course material.