A judge used to be a speaker on behalf of the law. He had no power, that lay in the hands of the legislation. The law has to be interpreted before it can be applied and the interpretation can be done in various ways. This means that there is power for the judges. Every judge has a different history and personality, so it is no surprise that the law is interpreted different by all judges. No judges has exactly the same view on a case.This was the topic of the debate between author and lawyer Bernhard Schlink and the President of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands Geert Corstens. They both present a clear position on this current issue, which is also an important subject in political debate around the world.

Bernhard Schlink (1946) is Emeritus Professor of Public Law and Legal Philosophy of Law at Humboldt University in Berlin. He gained worldwide fame fifteen years ago with his novel The Reader, the first foreign novel to top the New York Times bestseller list. The film of the book by Stephen Daldry starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes won an Oscar and a Golden Globe. Schlink also created a masterful portrait of Gerhard Selb in Old Sins (Cossee 2004, part 1 filmed by Nico Hofmann) and he wrote the novels Homecoming (Cossee 2006), that is currently also being filmed, The Weekend (Cossee 2009), of which a film script has been written, and the crime novel A Web of Lies (2001). The story ‘The Other Man’ from Flights of Love (Cossee 2008) was also filmed. The story ‘The Woman at the Gas Station’ from the same book and The Reader are also available as audio books. His most recent publication is Summer Lies (Cossee, 2010). The entire work of Bernhard Schlink has been translated in many different languages worldwide.

Geert Corstens (1946) has been successively Public Prosecutor in Arnhem, Professor of Criminal Law at Radboud University in Nijmegen and a Justice at the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, where he has been President since 2008. His best-known publication is The Criminal Justice System (Kluwer, 2008) that is currently in its sixth edition.

'The report of this high level debate is worth reading and has no clear winner.' - Nederlands Dagblad