e-News 2018/3

Editorial

Photograph: Michael Moser

Dear readers,

Shortly before the end of the year 2018 ACA-Europe held the first seminar organised by the Federal Administrative Court of Germany during the German presidency of ACA-Europe. The Cologne seminar “ReNEUAL I – Administrative Law in the EU – Single Case Decision-Making” was inspired by the methodology of the ReNEUAL project which, aiming at drafting model rules for the administration of the organs of the European Union, looked at the different legal systems of the member states in order to draw up a proposal containing the best the legal systems have to offer to the member states..

By applying the same methodology, we discussed central aspects of administrative procedural law in Cologne. In the centre of our attention were, on the one hand, the following questions: who can be a party to administrative proceedings and what rights and obligations are linked to the status of being a party. On the other hand, we discussed more intensively the way administrative authorities determine the facts of a case and how the administrative courts control this part of the work of the administration.

Not too surprisingly, we discovered many similarities in our national legal systems but also some interesting differences. Discussing these similarities and differences among the Supreme Administrative Courts and Councils of State enables us to learn from each other. This can also help us in our daily jurisdictional work. ACA-Europe is the platform to exchange our views and experiences. Often we face similar problems and sometimes it is pure coincidence in which member state of the European Union a certain problem arises first. Whenever comparable issues have already been dealt with by another member of ACA-Europe, we should have a look at how our colleagues have solved the problem applying their national law. Whenever our own national law allows us to follow the paths that our colleagues have already taken with good results, we should at least consider doing so as well. The ACA-Europe tools such as the ACA Forum and the databases JuriFast and Dec.Nat. already help us along this way.

The last days of the year not only serve to look back, but also to look ahead: In 2019, three seminars are scheduled. In March, the Irish Supreme Court invites us to a seminar on “How our Courts Decide: the Decision-Making Process of Supreme Administrative Courts” to Dublin, followed by another seminar and a general assembly in Berlin in May. This seminar will be a “sister seminar” to the one in Dublin. It will address other aspects of our jurisdictional work: the functions of and the access to our Supreme Administrative Courts. The members of ACA-Europe have already received questionnaires in preparation of these two seminars. In September, the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic will invite us to a seminar on the limits of the judicial guarantee held in Brno. So, ACA-Europe will continue its work to foster the mutual understanding among the members and the development of a European legal community.

Now all that remains is to wish all of you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2019!

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Klaus Rennert
President of ACA-Europe,
President of the Federal Administrative Court of Germany

Seminar

From 2 to 4 December 2018, the ACA seminar on Single Case Decision-Making was held in Cologne. ACA-Europe has received 27 national reports. All national reports have been published on the ACA-Europe website. Read more....

Jurifast

These decisions have been selected for you:

	The Netherlands An interesting decision of the State of Council of the Netherlands according to which women of foreign nationality who have adopted a western lifestyle and who may no longer be accepted in their country of origin may be recognized as refugees under certain conditions. http://www.aca-europe.eu/index.php/en/jurifast-en?ID=3438
	Estonia Once again, a decision on the protection of personal data: an important question at the time of the GDPR. In this case, the supreme court recalls the rights and obligations of the administrative authorities and the persons whose personal data are held by these authorities. http://www.aca-europe.eu/index.php/en/jurifast-en?ID=3392
	Spain The supreme administrative court confirms in this case the patrimonial responsibility of the Spanish State as a legislator who, in a law relating to donations and successions, clearly and seriously violates European law. http://www.aca-europe.eu/index.php/en/jurifast-en?ID=3378
	Germany This case raises two preliminary questions to the Court of Justice concerning the maintenance of the right to work and the right of residence of a third-country national within the Union. These rights were obtained through marriage of the third-country national with a citizen of the Union. However, the marriage was dissolved and the third-country national was sentenced for assaulting his ex-wife. http://www.aca-europe.eu/index.php/en/jurifast-en?ID=540

Remember, the Jurifast RSS feed can be obtained at the following address: http://www.aca-europe.eu/index.php/en/jurifast-en (possibility to subscribe to an RSS feed).

Forum

The forum of ACA-Europe presently has 205 members from 34 institutions.

Since the last e-news, 5 new collective questions have been asked and 13 countries actively participated by providing 38 responses: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovenia.

The following subjects have been discussed:

Westernised women and Directive 2011/95/EU (13 responses)
Judicial control of Schengen Visas - statistics (10 responses)
Date of assessing the lawfulness of expulsion decisions (6 responses)
Involvement parties in preliminary reference procedure (9 responses)
The right of self-defense in case of classified testimony (0 response)

Access to the forum is reserved for the members of ACA-Europe, who can register for it at the following address: http://www.aca-europe.eu/forum/

Tour of Europe

The Tour of Europe provides an analysis, in 76 points, on how the administrative justice system is organised in the different Member States of the European Union and Turkey.

In 2018 updates have been provided for Belgium and Latvia. These texts can be found on the association’s website, both in French and English. Also, an update of the English version has been provided for Cyprus.

In order to obtain the objectives, defined in the specific agreement between ACA-Europe and the European Commission, within the scope of the subvention granted by the European Union, members which have not updated the available information since 2009 are warmly invited to do so by contacting the ACA-Europe team at the following email address: benny.desutter@aca-europe.eu.

Subsequent changes to the updated versions are also welcome.

Judge Exchange

This year, ACA-Europe had the opportunity in 2018 to allow 18 judges from its member institutions to complete a 12-day work visit with one of them. These internships end with a report written in French or in English. The first reports 2018 have already been posted on the website of the association.

In 2019, and subject to the grant from the European Commission, 18 judges will be able to participate in this exchange of judges.

The 2019 procedure has just been launched. The presidents of the member institutions were invited to announce, before 20 January 2019, possibilities of receiving candidates in their institution. The General Secretariat will send the list of internship offers upon receipt of the 2019 grant.

As from 2019, our new project manager, Katty Lauvau, will be responsible for the Judge Exchange Program.

Contact address: katty.lauvau@aca-europe.eu

Members' News

Sweden – Supreme Administrative Court – September 2018

On the 4th of September 2018, Ms. Helena Jäderblom started as President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden. She replaces Mr. Mats Melin, who has retired at the end of August.

Ms. Jäderblom was born in Gothenburg in 1958. She received a Master of Law degree from the University of Uppsala in 1983. In 2011 she became Judge at the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden. Since 2012, she has been the Swedish Judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

ACA News

Grant 2019

Good news: the 2019 Grant Agreement has been signed!

Thank you, Anne-Catherine!

ACA-Europe has to say goodbye to Anne-Catherine Van Geersdaele. We want to thank Anne-Catherine for the many years of cooperation and commitment to the secretariat of ACA-Europe. At the same time, we welcome our new colleague, Katty Lauvau, who will take over from Anne Catherine from March 2019 onwards.

In this issue

Agenda

25-26 March 2019

Seminar in Dublin, Ireland – Decision making

12-14 May 2019

General Assembly and seminar in Berlin, Germany

9 September 2019

Seminar in Brno, Czech Republic – Limits of judicial guarantee

For a complete overview of the calendar, see our website.

Analysis 2018-2019

On October 24th, an invitation was sent to the members participate in the yearly transversal study.

For 2018, the Board of the Association has, for a second time, opted to contribute to the “EU Justice Scoreboard” (“administrative justice” component). The study is based on a questionnaire consisting of 114 questions about “form and style of the decision”, “reasoning of judgments”, “clarity of judgments”, “concise judgments”, “assessment of individual and global quality of judgments” and about “implementation in the lower courts”.

Deadline for participation was Friday, November 30th, 2018. In the coming months the results will be analysed by a working group and a report will be written. This report will be presented during the colloquium in Berlin on May 14, 2019. At the same time, the study will be published on the website of ACA-Europe.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Funded by the Justice programme of the European Union