Köbler decision
The Köbler decision (ECJ, C-224/01, Slg. 2003, I-10239ff.) Of September 30, 2003 of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is an important decision in the field of European law and state liability law . It is a fundamental decision in which the ECJ specified its case law based on the Francovich decision on EU state liability for the case group of state liability for judicial injustice.
prehistory
The Köbler decision was based on the following facts: The plaintiff Gerhard Köbler , a legal scholar , had been a full university professor in Innsbruck in a public service relationship with the Austrian state since March 1, 1986 . On his appointment, he was granted the remuneration of a full university professor at grade 10 plus the normal seniority allowance.
In a letter dated February 28, 1996, he applied for the special seniority allowance for university professors in accordance with Section 50a of the Basic Law. He argued that although he did not have 15 years of service as a professor at Austrian universities, he did have a corresponding period of service, taking into account his work at universities in other Member States of the Union. After Austria's accession to the Union, the requirement of 15 years of service exclusively at Austrian universities - without taking into account the service period at universities in other Member States - represents indirect discrimination that is not justified under Union law, since it violates Article 39 EC (free movement of workers ). The application was rejected because the 15 years of service were not only served at Austrian universities.
The plaintiff appealed against this before the Administrative Court, which in turn submitted the question to the ECJ by way of a preliminary ruling whether service times in other member states are taken into account in the same way as time in Germany. The Verwaltungsgerichtshof later withdrew the reference for a preliminary ruling and rejected the plaintiff's application. In support of this, he stated that the special age allowance represented a loyalty bonus that objectively justified a deviation from the Union law provisions on the free movement of workers.
The plaintiff did not agree with this decision and therefore brought an action against the Republic of Austria for damages before the Regional Court for Civil Law Matters in Vienna. The Regional Court, unlike the Administrative Court, saw both the substantive legal question and the question of state liability for court decisions contrary to EU law as requiring clarification and submitted five questions to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling, including the question of whether a member state is liable for EU law violations Decisions of the highest courts extend.
decision
The ECJ stated that this was the case, as previous case law ( Francovich decision ) did not reveal any restrictions in this regard. The type of acting body is irrelevant for the attribution of the legal infringement under Union law. However, the state is only liable for a decision contrary to Union law in exceptional cases in which the court has obviously violated the applicable law. The following criteria are to be used: the degree of clarity and precision of the rule violated, the deliberate nature of the violation, the excusability of the legal error, the opinion of a Union body, the violation of the obligation to submit.
However, in the present case there was no sufficiently serious breach of Union law, since the breach could not be answered unequivocally and unambiguously.
literature
- Stephan Keiler, Christoph Grumböck (ed.): ECJ case law up to date. Jurisdiction of the Courts of the European Communities according to policies . Linde, Vienna 2006, pp. 380–388 (Author: Andreas Auer).
- Kurt M. Kiethe, Peer Groeschke: The strengthening of the plaintiff's rights in the right of appeal and revision by the Köbler decision of the ECJ . In: Competition in Law and Practice (WRP). 52nd vol., 2006, 1st half volume, no. 1, pp. 29-33.
- Heike Krieger: Liability of the national judge for violation of Community law - The judgment of the Köbler of the ECJ, EuZW 2003, 718. In: Juristische Schulung. Journal for Studies and Legal Traineeships (JuS). Vol. 44, 2004, Part 2, pp. 855-858.
- Sofia Moreira de Sousa, Wolfgang Heusel (ed.): Enforcement of community law from Francovich to Köbler. Twelve years of state liability under Community law . Federal Gazette, Cologne 2004.
- Christian Wolf: The (un) dramatic effects of the Köbler decision of the European Court of Justice on EU state liability law and German revision law . In: Wertpapiermachrichtungen (WM). Journal of Business and Banking Law. 59th vol., 2005, 3rd half-volume, pp. 1345-1351.
