Mrs Beatrijs Deconinck is the first woman to be appointed as the first president of the Court of Cassation (the 37th in history). She succeeds Mr Jean de Codt and takes over as head of the highest Belgian judicial authority on 2 April 2019.

Mrs Beatrijs Deconinck was born in Ypres on 5 July 1955. She studied law at KULAK and graduated from Ghent University in 1978 with a degree in law and criminology. After her studies, she was successively a part-time assistant and lecturer at the Institute of Judicial Law of Ghent University. She is still linked to this institution as an academic consultant. She is also co-chair of the Inter-University Centre for Judicial Law.

She began her legal career at the Ypres Bar in 1978. She then joined the judiciary in 1990, when she was appointed judge at the Court of First Instance in Furnes. In 1995, she was appointed as an adviser to the Ghent Court of Appeal. On 4 May 2006, she was sworn in as an adviser to the Court of Cassation. She has been Deputy Section President since June 26, 2014. She is also a substitute judge at the Benelux Court of Justice and is active in the European Judicial Network in civil and commercial matters.

She is particularly interested in civil matters, including civil law, European procedural law and disciplinary law. It sits mainly in the First and Third Chambers of the Court. She is the author of a wide range of scientific publications in these fields. In so doing, it highlighted many aspects of the procedure as well as the characteristics common to other branches of law. It is also attentive to the proper conduct and economy of the procedure, as well as to the responsible management of procedural sanctions. It closely monitors trends and developments in society and the legal sphere.