Judicial Remedies and Procedure

Abstract

In considering the nature of judicial remedies in German law a common lawyer has to bear in mind some basic aspects of that law which are at variance with the common law. While for a common lawyer judicial remedy means remedy in the ordinary courts the German law assigns administrative matters to the administrative courts.1 Judicial remedy here means remedy in the administrative courts and not in the ordinary courts which except in few specified matters have no jurisdiction in administrative matters. Second, although common law does not exclude administrative matters from the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts, it fully recognizes the need for specialist tribunals to deal with such matters. The German law recognizes no administrative tribunals apart from the administrative courts. Therefore, a person can approach the courts directly except where the law requires exhaustion of the administrative remedy in the limited sense, to be mentioned below, before coming to the administrative courts. Thus, except when an appeal in the court is provided against a decision of an administrative tribunal the judicial remedy in common law is of supervisory nature while the remedy provided in the German administrative courts is the primary remedy.