(crossposted from !exclusive_public_resources)
The Council of State is a court that handles appeals, often to challenge non-court decisions like that of a public enforcement body. E.g. you report to SPF Mobilité that an airline or rail operator did not compensate you for a delay or cancellation, and they give you a flippant rejection, the Council of State is your recourse.
The Council of State will not open a case unless you pay a few hundred euros to their bank account. They do not accept cash.
So you might think: I’ll just hire a lawyer with cash and the lawyer will open the case. Nope. Belgian lawyers are prohibited from accepting cash.
Its strange a country would not require businesses and the government itself to accept the countries currency. I mean that is one of the foundations holding up fiat currency.
About as strange as a country not requiring its police to be beholden to the law when that is one of the foundations holding up the monopoly on violence.
About as strange as a country not forbidding its farmers from pumping up an unusustainable amount of ground water when that is one of the foundations holding up the country’s long-term agricultural capacity.
Which is to say, chalk it up as yet another time when liberal theory only exists to whitewash the greed and oppressiveness of the bourgeoisie.