II: Administrative Appeal System
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1. Two-Level Second Trial
The trial levels of administrative appeals are two-level second trials. That is, the administrative courts are divided into administrative high courts and administrative supreme courts. In the event that appealers do not accept the appeal decisions, they shall bring the appeals to the high courts. Those who do not accept the judgments of high courts, unless otherwise specified in the laws, shall then apply for defense or appeals. Therefore, the high courts deal with first trials based on facts and law on the principle of a verbal trial. The supreme courts deal with appeal trials based on law on the principle of a written trial. Nevertheless, under particular conditions, they may have the function of both verbal and arguments and trials based on facts.
2. Types of Appeals
In the old system, there was only one kind of appealˇXrevoking appeals. The new system takes account of the fact that in Germany, in addition to revoking appeals, there are also requests for obligatory appeals, confirmation appeals, regular settlement appeals and special appeals for protecting the public interest.
(i) Revoking appeals: Administrative appeals shall be raised on illegal administrative punishments that are believed to damage rights or legal interests in disputes of public law.
(ii) Obligatory appeals: Administrative appeals shall be raised on disputes over public law such as ˇ§appeals on disobedience regarding punishmentsˇ¨ and ˇ§appeals on disobedience regarding denial of application,ˇ¨ etc.
(iii) Confirmation appeals: Administrative appeals shall be raised on disputes over public laws such as ˇ§appeals on confirmation of invalidity of administrative punishments,ˇ¨ ˇ§appeals on establishment or non-establishment of legal relations in public law,ˇ¨ ˇ§confirmation that the executed or terminated administrative punishments due to other reasons are illegal,ˇ¨ etc.
(iv) Regular settlement appeals: It is specified that to protect the public interest, the public shall raise administrative appeals on matters disregarding their own rights and legal interests under illegal administrative behavior by administrative authorities.
3.General Appeal Procedures and Simple Appeal Procedures
(i) General appeal procedures: In general, the administrative appeal events are appeal procedures. There has to be verbal arguments in the procedure of the first trial in which the clients have to make statements on the facts and law regarding the appeal relationships; as the administrative appeals involve the public interest, the administrative courts, as a result, have to investigate the factual relationships without any restraint on the claims of the clients while the adjudicators specify the matters to be exercised. These have been specified in the new Act. Regular appeal cases under trial in high courts come under three judges in the collegiate system.
(ii) Simple appeal procedures: Cases of simple appeals specified in Article 229 of the Administrative Appeal Act apply to simple appeal procedures. In general, no verbal arguments are required. One single judge will conduct the simple appeal.
4.Procedures of Retrials
In sentences where the revoking or amending the original punishments or decisions is also of concern to a third party, it will be unfair if a third party is able to submit the attack or defense which shall influence the sentence results but is unable to participate in the appeals due to reasons beyond his/her control and experience disadvantage due to the revocation or amendment of the decisions. The current Administrative Appeal Act has a retrial system, allowing a third party to request retrials on confirmed final sentences.
5.Preservation Procedures
There are currently systems for provisional appropriation and provisional disposition as follows:
(i) Provisional appropriation: A system to protect enforcement in provisional appropriation between central or local authorities and people regarding settlement due to public law or settlement regarding contracts in public law.
(ii) Provisional disposition: One shall be able to raise administrative appeals on disputes on public law. However, the appeal procedures are very complicated. Provided the right statutes are amended or will be amended as concerns public law, although those appealing may win their appeals, they will not be able to exercise their rights. Therefore, there is a system of coercive execution according to the concept of provisional disposition. Furthermore, in the event of necessity of provisional statutes in public relationships in disputes over public law, provisional dispositions shall be applied for provisional statutes.
6.Applicability of the Civil Procedure Code
Although the way disputes over legal relationships in public law are handled in administrative appeals is different from the way disputes on legal relationships on private law in civil procedure are handled, one can still find similarities in appeal types and procedures. Therefore, there is the rule of applicability of Civil Procedure Code