By Flora Goudappel*
Like the United States, the Kingdom of the Netherlands consists of a main part of the state and several parts with different levels of autonomy in other regions of the world. The organization of the cooperation between the four countries within the Kingdom is laid down in the Statute of the Kingdom. Yet, the position of the six Dutch islands in the Caribbean is hardly present in the curriculums at law schools in the European part of the Kingdom. At least in courses on constitutional law, an introduction to the constitutional law of the Kingdom would be expected. In the curriculums of the law schools in the Dutch Caribbean, the Statute and Kingdom relations play an important role. Moreover, a comparison of the differences and similarities between the systems of the four countries within the Kingdom is an integral part of these curriculums. This shows that awareness of the territorial scope of the state is not equal in all of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Yet, lessons can be learned from the way this inequality is approached in the different curriculums.
In this contribution, the focus is on the teaching about the differences between the internal state systems since these are the basis of making students and practitioners aware of the existence of differences and similarities. Thus, other territories can not only be part of the curriculum, but also be used to possibly learn lessons from the differences and similarities. It can be concluded that lessons can be learned from the way the three overseas countries incorporate each other’s systems as well as the main legal system in the teaching of constitutional law. In addition, it is shown that spreading awareness, for example, through publications, helps in bringing the interesting and relevant lessons to be learned into the spotlight.