Administrative Court of the Union of Evangelical Churches

The administrative court of the ICE was a German Protestant ecclesiastical higher court and organ of the Union of Protestant Churches . As such it existed from 2003 to 2010/2011; he was the successor to the Administrative Court of the Evangelical Church of the Union (EKU) created in 1952. Its legal basis was the Administrative Court Act (VwGG) of June 16, 1996. Its tasks have been performed by the ecclesiastical court of the Evangelical Church in Germany since 2011 .

The court was responsible for revisions and appeals against decisions of the first instance administrative courts of the member churches of the ICE and the ICE itself. The chairman was a judge at the Federal Administrative Court a. D. Hartmut Albers , Berlin.

The constitutional charter for the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union of September 29, 1922 provided for the formation of legal committees. The ecclesiastical administrative jurisdiction enables those affected to legal protection against ecclesiastical measures in the area of administrative law . The main subject of the proceedings are disputes arising from the employment relationship between pastors and church officials (salary, transfer), about the correct decision-making by church bodies (e.g. exclusion due to bias), about the compatibility of norms with higher-ranking law, about changes to internal organization (e.g. union of pastors, dissolution or division of parishes), between church organs and electoral review procedures (e.g. in relation to elders district elections).

Every lawyer who belongs to a Protestant church is capable of postulating .

The existence of an ecclesiastical administrative jurisdiction, which is not occupied by ordained theologians, but by parishioners with the qualification for (state) judicial office, goes back to the Protestant understanding of ministry, which is a separation between priests and lay people , as it is in the Roman Catholic Church gives, does not know (Luther: "general priesthood of all baptized").

Regional churches that do not belong to the ICE have their own administrative courts. The Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand , has no administrative jurisdiction in Germany, although the Codex Iuris Canonici allows this.

Web links

Overview of case law (case law of the VGH of the EKU and the UEK)

Individual evidence

^ Ordinance on the Administrative Court for the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union of September 9, 1952 (ABl. EKD 1953 p. 159)
↑ OJ. EKD p. 390 ; Name change through church law of October 18, 2003 ( OJ EKD p. 426 ); New version dated February 15, 2005
↑ Church law regulating administrative jurisdiction in the Union of Evangelical Churches in the EKD of 9 November 2010 (ABl. EKD 2011 p. 21)
↑ cf. Agreement on the formation of a joint administrative court of June 23/10. and July 18, 1997 ( ABl. EKD p. 431 ): EKU, Pommern, Silesian Oberlausitz, 1999 also Anhalt
↑ Pr.GS 1924 p. 226 , Art. 136-139; Hartmut Maurer : The Administrative Courts of the Evangelical Church (1958), p. 19 ff .; Justification for the Administrative Court Act of the EKD (2010)

[1] Ordinance on the Administrative Court for the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union of September 9, 1952 (ABl. EKD 1953 p. 159)

[2] OJ. EKD p. 390 ; Name change through church law of October 18, 2003 ( OJ EKD p. 426 ); New version dated February 15, 2005

[3] Church law regulating administrative jurisdiction in the Union of Evangelical Churches in the EKD of 9 November 2010 (ABl. EKD 2011 p. 21)

[4] . Agreement on the formation of a joint administrative court of June 23/10. and July 18, 1997 ( ABl. EKD p. 431 ): EKU, Pommern, Silesian Oberlausitz, 1999 also Anhalt

[5] Pr.GS 1924 p. 226 , Art. 136-139; Hartmut Maurer : The Administrative Courts of the Evangelical Church (1958), p. 19 ff .; Justification for the Administrative Court Act of the EKD (2010)