Statelessness & Citizenship Review 2020 2(2) territorially competent for their place of residence. 19 Appeals would have to be made to one of the five courts of appeal. The procedure is initiated in writing with a unilateral petition, and the request is decided upon by a judge after advice from the public prosecutor and a hearing. 20 There are, however, no specific safeguards in place for the determination of statelessness, 21 and the person recognised as stateless does not derive any rights As of 2018, the territory of Belgium is subdivided into 5 judicial areas (Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Liège and Mons), 12 judicial arrondissements and 187 judicial cantons… The Court of Cassation … is the supreme court of the Belgian judicial system. It only hears appeals in last resort against judgments and other decisions of lower courts (mostly the appellate courts), and only on points of law. This means the Court of Cassation will not review or reconsider the findings of fact established by lower courts… The courts of appeal [five] … are the main appellate courts in the Belgian judicial system… They have appellate jurisdiction over the judgements made by the tribunals of first instance and enterprise tribunals in their judicial area, except for petty cases and judgements in which a tribunal of first instance already exercised appellate review. The courts of first instance (12) are divided into several sections: the Civil Court, the Criminal Court, the Youth Court, the Family Court and the Sentence Enforcement Court. The Civil Court hears all cases which have not been expressly assigned, by the legislator, to another court. The type of court that must hear the case is determined by the nature and severity of the offence, or the nature of the dispute, and also the size of the sums involved. In some circumstances it is the nature of the dispute that determines the court with jurisdiction. … The Council of State is a superior administrative court and monitors the administration. It considers applications from members of the public who believe that an administrative body has not observed the law. The role of the Constitutional Court is to ensure that acts, decrees and ordinances are in conformity with the Constitution [and international law] and to oversee proper separation of powers between the public authorities. 19 20 21 ‘Belgium’, European Justice (Web Page, 3 August 2017) <https://ejustice.europa.eu/content_judicial_systems_in_member_states-16-be-en.do?member=1>. Code Judiciaire [Judicial Code] (Belgium) art 632bis <https://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/eli/loi/1967/10/10/1967101054/justel#Art.632bis>. ibid arts 1025, 1034. Because of the absence of any centralised data collection regarding the judiciary, it is impossible to know how many applications there are by year for the statelessness determination procedure, or how many positive decisions, rejections or (un)successful appeals there are. This population is, strictly speaking, impossible to estimate or to quantify. As a consequence, no targeted policy can be conducted, no insight developed on the merits of the procedure, nor scientific research undertaken on profiles. 304