The Council of State is recruiting Dutch-speaking magistrates for its Auditorate

The Council of State is opening the recruitment of magistrates for the Auditorate and the Coordination Office and is establishing a recruitment reserve for its Dutch-speaking staff. The official notice is published in the Belgian Official Gazette of October 2, 2026, page 52827, under reference [C − 2026/007151]. A competition will be organized during the first half of 2027, and several already vacant assistant auditor positions will be filled shortly.

The competition is reserved for candidates who can prove, by their diploma, that they have passed the doctoral, licentiate, or master’s examination in law in the Dutch language. To be admitted, candidates must be Belgian, be at least 27 years old, hold a doctorate, licentiate, or master’s degree in law, and have acquired three years of useful professional experience of a legal nature after obtaining the degree. These conditions must be met by the expiration of the deadline set for registration; in the event of a dispute, the jury decides on admission to the competition.

The established reserve is valid for three years for appointment to assistant auditor or assistant law clerk positions that become vacant during this period. This period runs from the day the jury establishes the list indicating the order of ranking in the competition.

Three written tests, two oral tests

The competition consists of three written tests (100 points) and two oral tests (50 points):

• Written test a): a report on an administrative matter (a petition for annulment) for which the file is made available to each candidate — 40 points, 4 hours.
• Written test b): a report with a critical examination, primarily regarding the content (compliance with international and supranational law, notably European law and the European Convention on Human Rights of November 4, 1950, compliance with constitutional and jurisdictional rules) and secondarily regarding the legislative technique and form of a draft law, decree, ordinance, or order — 40 points.
• Written test c): a commentary based on a judgment, relating to the problems it raises regarding the jurisdiction of the Council of State, the admissibility, and the merits of the grounds invoked — 20 points.
• Oral tests: a 10-minute critical presentation on a subject chosen by the candidate from a list established by the jury, and an oral opinion on a file containing an extremely urgent petition for suspension, after 30 minutes of preparation.

Written tests b) and c) combined last 4 hours. Successful candidates must obtain at least 50% of the points in the written tests (50 out of 100), at least 50% in the oral tests (25 out of 50), and at least 60% in total (90 out of 150). They may only consult the usual codes provided to them in electronic form by the Council of State and must write their tests on a PC equipped with a single word-processing program.

Registration, information session and calendar

• Submission of applications: by email to inschrijvenexamenauditeur@raadvst-consetat.be or by registered letter to the First President of the Council of State, P & O Service, rue de la Science 33, 1040 Brussels.
• Deadline: Friday, December 4, 2026, failing which the application will be inadmissible.
• Information session: Tuesday, November 17, 2026, at the Council of State, regarding the duties and functioning of the institution, the Auditorate and the Coordination Office, the status of magistrates (career, annual salary, holiday regime, working from home) and the examination itself; registration at infosessie@raadvst-consetat.be.
• Written exam: Saturday, January 23, 2027; oral exam: Thursday, March 25, 2027.

Career and bridges between the two bodies

After two years of service, assistant auditors and assistant legal clerks may be appointed as auditors and legal clerks, respectively. Any assistant auditor, auditor, or first auditor may, upon any suitable vacancy, be appointed as an assistant legal clerk, legal clerk, or first legal clerk at their request and by priority, upon the advice of the First President and the Advocate General; the reverse is provided for under the same conditions. Bridges also exist toward the positions of head of section, subject to a concurring opinion.

For the country’s highest administrative court, this notice — which specifies that “the press is requested to reproduce this notice” — aims to reconstitute a Dutch-speaking framework and to quickly fill positions that are already vacant. Dutch-speaking legal experts meeting the conditions have until December 4, 2026, to apply, with a selection deadline set for the first half of 2027.