The question of whether a govemment can go bankrupt in the Netherlands is not a new one. The Supreme Court, for example, was asked as early as 1922 whether a municipality(in this case, Wormerveer)could be decared bankrupt. Through the appeal in cassation, the court did not reach a principled verdict in this matter. Ever since, it has remained a vexed question that regularly kept rearing its head, both in the literature and in case-law. There were