Quality and speed of administrative decision-making proceedings: tension or balance? The case of Germany

Abstract

Measures have been taken to accelerate decision-making procedures in Germany since the beginning of the 1990s. The wellspring of these efforts was the need, on the one hand, to rapidly improve the infrastructure of the new German federal states (hereafter Länder) after reunification, and, on the other hand, to reduce what the government and industrial lobby groups considered the obstruction of administrative procedures to economic investment. This article first of all deals with the ambiguous relationship between speed and quality. The measures taken in order to expedite procedures are also analysed. Two types of measures can be distinguished here (with two further sub-types): Firstly, there are measures of a general scope, which are not specific to a certain sector of environmental law, but which concern administrative procedures as such. In this category two types of rules need to be differentiated: the rules governing the administrative procedure before the administrative act is delivered by the competent authority are laid down in the Administrative Procedures act (Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz) and the rules governing the judicial review of these decisions before the courts are laid down in the German Administrative Courts Procedures Act (Verwaltungsgerichtsordnung). Secondly, measures have been taken to speed up infrastructure and licensing procedures in particular. They can generally be categorised as procedures under the German Federal Immission Control Act, which applies to industrial plants and procedures where a specific planning permit (Planfeststellung) is required. This is the case for all types of infrastructure projects such as airports, roads, landfills etc. Furthermore, this article deals with a complete shift of the “deregulation” paradigm in the year 2011. Finally, it addresses the impact on the quality of the decisions in terms of environmental protection and citizens’ rights.