18th German-Ukrainian colloquium on administrative jurisdiction

Details
Published: July 23, 2024
(from right to left): Oleh Zaverukha, President of the Lviv Administrative Court of Appeal, Tetiana Drachuk, President of the Vinnytsa Administrative Court of Appeal, Prof Dr Lars Brocker, President of the Constitutional Court and of the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate, Natalia Bohdaniuk, Deputy Head of Administration of the Supreme Court, Head of the Secretariat of the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, Andrij Zahorodniuk, Judge at the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, Johannes Göbel, Presidential Judge at the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate, Wolfram Hertig, Senior Project Manager, IRZ.
(from right to left): Oleh Zaverukha, President of the Lviv Administrative Court of Appeal, Tetiana Drachuk, President of the Vinnytsa Administrative Court of Appeal, Prof Dr Lars Brocker, President of the Constitutional Court and of the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate, Natalia Bohdaniuk, Deputy Head of Administration of the Supreme Court, Head of the Secretariat of the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, Andrij Zahorodniuk, Judge at the Administrative Cassation Court within the Supreme Court, Johannes Göbel, Presidential Judge at the Higher Administrative Court of Rhineland-Palatinate, Wolfram Hertig, Senior Project Manager, IRZ.

Ukraine

The Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Administrative Court (OVG) once again created the framework for dialogue with the Ukrainian administrative judiciary this year and hosted the colloquium on current topics in administrative procedural law from 8-12 July 2024.

Andrij Zahorodniuk, Judge at the Administrative Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court, Oleh Zaverukha, President of the Administrative Court of Appeal in Lviv, Tetiana Drachuk, President of the Administrative Court of Appeal in Vinnytsa and the Deputy Administrative Director of the Supreme Court, Head of the Secretariat of the Administrative Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court, Natalia Bohdaniuk, travelled from Ukraine. The President of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Parliament, Hendrik Hering, received the delegation.

The war in Ukraine is causing considerable difficulties for the entire judiciary in the country, such as a lack of personnel, additional logistical and organisational problems and stagnating reforms. At the same time, the administrative judiciary has recorded a significant increase in the number of lawsuits due to the war.

Thanks to the dedicated initiative of the President of the Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Administrative Court (and President of the Rhineland-Palatinate Constitutional Court), Prof Dr Lars Brocker, a programme has now been created with expert discussions on current key topics such as IT-supported judicial activity, e-files, assembly law, judicial self-administration, delimitation of administrative and constitutional disputes, commercial administrative law with European law.

The Rhineland-Palatinate Administrative Courts had already been advising the Ukrainian partners since the mid-1990s on behalf of IRZ on the first drafts of the Ukrainian Administrative Procedure Act – as well as the Administrative Procedure Act that came into force at the end of last year. The development of the Ukrainian administrative justice system, which was created in 2005, is still based on many years of German advice. Reliable regulations that conform to the rule of law are developed directly from the constitution when there is a lack of specialised legislation, such as in the law on public assembly or school law. Undefined legal concepts are concretised and filled in, taking into account constitutional values and fundamental rights guarantees. Together with the highly committed Rhineland-Palatinate Higher Administrative Court, it has once again been possible to play a constructive role in the expansion of administrative jurisdiction in Ukraine. This has shown the effectiveness of the mutual exchange over a long period of time.