Search in ‘Judgments and decisions’


Headnotes

1. The publication of court rulings is a public task. It is a task of the judicial power derived directly from the constitution and therefore of every court. All rulings in the publication of which the public is or may be interested must be published. Rulings worthy of publication must be prepared for disclosure to the public by means of anonymisation or neutralisation.

2. Afterwards, the rulings do not need to be published by the courts themselves but their publication may also be left to the private initiative of interested persons including the judges involved in the ruling by means of an organisational act.

3. When disclosing court rulings for purposes of publication, the courts are subject to a neutrality obligation. This corresponds with a right of the publishers of specialist journals as well as other publication media to equal treatment in journalistic competition.

4. Court rulings must be sent to permanent subscribers simultaneously, as far as possible. In case of private third parties, including the judges in their private function, disclosing the rulings must not be organised in a way that leads to certain publishing houses having a competitive advantage.

5. When disclosing the rulings, no distinction must be made based on the academic standard of the press media to which the rulings are to be supplied.

Judgment of 18 July 2023 - BVerwG 4 CN 3.22 (uploaded on 5 March 2024)

Compatibility of section 13b BauGB with EU law

Headnote

section 13b BauGB is incompatible with article 3 (1) and (5) of Directive 2001/42/EC on the assessment of the effects of certain plans and programmes on the environment (SEA Directive).

No results found. The decicion text is usually several weeks after the delivery of a judgment.

FAQFrequently asked questions

  • What judgments or decisions of the Federal Administrative Court can I find on the website?

    You can find rulings of the Federal Administrative Court from January 2002 onwards on this website. Excluded are inter alia

    • decisions to discontinue the proceedings
    • decisions to stay the proceedings
    • decisions on legal aid
    • assignment decisions
    • decisions regarding the value in dispute
    • decisions on the assessment of costs
    • summons of a third party to attend the proceedings as a party whose rights may be affected
    • complaints seeking remedy for a violation of the right to be heard
    • settlements
    • dismissals of complaints brought before the Federal Administrative Court according to section 152 of the Code of Administrative Court Procedure
    • decisions and judgments that are subject to the security of classified information or that are incomprehensible or distorted by the legally required anonymisation.

    Rulings of the Federal Administrative Court passed before the year 2002 will gradually be added to the website. You can also find abbreviated versions of several several rulings in English.

  • When is the decision text for a judgment made available?

    It is usually published several weeks, in some cases also several months, after the delivery of a judgment.

    The background of this is as follows: In general, the Federal Administrative Court passes a judgment after a hearing and a deliberation. At that point in time, there is a ruling, the operative part of the judgment (so-called Tenor), but the text of the reasons for the ruling is not available yet. The written reasons will only be drawn up, a vote on them will be taken by the Senate, and they will be signed after the passing. Then the judgment will be delivered to all parties involved in the proceedings, anonymised and published.

  • What is the ECLI and what is it used for?

    ECLI is the abbreviation for the European Case Law Identifier. It serves to identify court rulings and enables cross-border search in a European judgment database. The ECLI allows for the linking of several sources and versions such as summaries, translations and comments for a judgment or decision. The ECLI often does not only lead you to just a single judgment, but to many other documents regarding this judgment.

  • How can I do research all over Europe using the ECLI?

    You can use the ECLI to do research in all participating national and European databases. That includes: