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    Every Belgian source in one search.

    Legislation, parliamentary documents, case law, decisions and legal literature, searched together. Every result opens at the passage you're looking for, highlighted in the full document.

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    • Case law

      Brussels Labour Court

      The court admits the messages as evidence, even though they were not intended for the employer.

    • Legislation

      Civil Code, Book 8

      Evidence may be provided by any means of evidence, save for the exceptions laid down by law.

    • Parliamentary documents

      Chamber, explanatory memorandum

      Means of evidence also include electronic messages.

    • Decisions

      Data Protection Authority

      The employer must inform the employee in advance about the monitoring of their messages.

    • Legal literature

      Journal article

      The court weighs the privacy of third parties against the right to evidence.

    How it works

    Search only what the court itself says.

    A judgment also sets out the positions of the parties. With Exclude party arguments, Ex Ante searches only the parts where the court or authority gives its own view.

    Find what was decided, not what a party claimed.

    Search settings

    Ghent Labour Court, judgment (example, translated from Dutch)

    The employee's position

    7. The employee argues that the dismissal for serious cause came too late. The facts date from 3 March; the dismissal only followed on 14 March, well beyond the three working days allowed by Article 35 of the Employment Contracts Act.

    The employer's position

    8. The employer counters that the time limit only started to run after the internal investigation, which was completed on 11 March with the hearing of the employee.

    The court's assessment

    9. Dismissal for serious cause must be given within three working days after the employer became aware of the facts. The employer is aware once it has sufficient certainty to form a view, with full knowledge of the matter, on the serious cause.

    10. An investigation needed to obtain that certainty can postpone the start of the time limit, provided it is carried out without delay. The court finds that the hearing of 11 March was needed to know the employee's version.

    11. The dismissal of 14 March was given in time and is not late.

    Ex Ante searches only the court's assessment.

    Search for what you mean.

    Ex Ante understands your question, even when the court used different words. Looking for an exact term or article? Search by keyword.

    You type
    summary dismissal after theft

    • Case law

      Labour Court

      … the dismissal for serious cause on the grounds of misappropriation of the employer's goods is justified …

    summary dismissal → serious causetheft → misappropriation

    One search, five types of sources.

    No more searching five databases one by one. One question returns the legislation, the preparatory works, the case law, the decisions and the legal literature on it.

    • Case law

      From the Court of Cassation and the Council of State to the labour tribunals.

    • Legislation

      Federal, Flemish, Walloon, Brussels and community legislation.

    • Parliamentary documents

      Explanatory memoranda, reports and amendments.

    • Decisions

      From the Data Protection Authority to decisions on access to administrative documents.

    • Legal literature

      Journal articles, handbooks, doctoral theses and more.

    More than a million documents in total.

    See all sources
    “In complex cases there are often hundreds of potentially relevant sources. Ex Ante shows the relevant passages straight away, which saves an enormous amount of time.”
    Koen Daniëlssenior adviser, CDRO Consulting

    Questions about the search engine

    Which sources does Ex Ante search?

    Legislation, parliamentary documents, case law, decisions and legal literature: more than a million documents in total. On the Sources page, you can see how many documents are available for each institution.

    What's the difference between semantic search and keyword search?

    Semantic search means Ex Ante searches by meaning. So you also find passages that use different words from yours, such as "serious cause" for "summary dismissal". With keyword search, you find exactly the term or article you type.

    What does Exclude party arguments do?

    In case law, Ex Ante then searches only the parts where the court or authority gives its own view, not the positions of the parties.

    Can I search the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation and the Council of State in one search?

    Yes. Among others, Ex Ante brings together the case law of the Court of Cassation, the Constitutional Court and the Council of State with that of the courts and tribunals, the Court of Justice of the EU and the European Court of Human Rights. One search covers them all. With the institution filter, you limit your results to a single court.

    Can I find Dutch-language and French-language case law in one search?

    Yes. Ex Ante searches sources in Dutch and French. A question in one language also finds passages in the other that deal with the same issue. With the language filter, you choose whether to search one language or both.

    How do I find case law for my submissions faster?

    Ex Ante speeds up your research in three ways. You ask your question in plain language. With Exclude party arguments, you see only what the court itself decided. And every result opens at the passage that matters. Writing in Word? With the add-in, you search directly from a selection in your submissions and add the footnote in one click.

    Can I filter by practice area, institution and date?

    Yes. You refine your results by practice area, type of source, institution, language and date.

    How up to date are the sources?

    We add new sources every day. Every night, Ex Ante checks whether new case law, legislation, decisions or legal literature have been published, and adds them. The Sources page shows how many documents are available per institution.

    Does Ex Ante use AI?

    Yes. Ex Ante searches by meaning and always shows an AI overview of the sources found, with a reference for every statement to the passage it relies on. The results themselves are always the original documents.

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