On November 11, 2022, the Sino-German Legal Cooperation Program of GIZ, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, hosted the workshop “Codification in Administrative Law and Objection Procedures.” The initiative for the event came from the Department for Administrative Law of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which is responsible for drafting laws in the field of administrative law.
China has been planning to reform its own administrative law for several years. Currently, the reform of the Law on Objection Procedures, which regulates the preliminary procedure between citizens and authorities, is on the legislative agenda. In her welcome speech, Ms. Yuan Jie, head of the aforementioned Department for Administrative Law, emphasized the role of German administrative law as a “good example” for the Chinese legislator as well as in research; due to the fact that – as she stated it – the administrative law is highly developed in Germany and looks back on a long tradition.
In his lecture on the codification of administrative law, Prof. Kluth, professor of Public Law at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and retired judge at the State Constitutional Court, explained the statutory system of the German administrative law. It is regulated in several individual acts, the general core of which is the Administrative Procedure Act.
Prof. Gassner, professor of Administrative Law at the Federal University of Public Administration, devoted her lecture to the German objection procedures. The objection is a legal remedy of the citizen, with which he can achieve the examination of an administrative act by the issuing authority. Prof. Gassner explained the purposes of the objection procedure, namely self-regulation of the administration, relieving the courts and granting simple and inexpensive legal protection for the citizen. She then discussed the objection procedure in Germany as a generally mandatory preliminary procedure before filing a lawsuit, with some exceptions regulated by law. Particularly in the case of mass procedures with a high error rate on the part of the authorities (e.g. tax law), she explained that it would be absolutely advisable to adhere to the objection procedure.
In the course of the concluding discussion, the participating representatives of the Legal Affairs Commission as well as Chinese law professors raised clarifying questions regarding the objection procedure and the respective competent authorities. Another focus of discussion was the importance of the Administrative Procedure Act against the background of it often being superseded by special laws. However, Prof. Kluth pointed out that the percentage of procedures that are governed by special laws is limited and that the law also has a great standardization and steering effect.
The Sino-German exchange in the field of administrative law is to be continued in 2023. Both Ms. Yuan Jie (see above) and Dr. Haase, head of the legal cooperation program, expressed their interest in doing so in their closing remarks.