A study of higher administrative courts in Germany

Principal investigators:	Prof. Dr. Christoph Knill (Konstanz), Dr. Daniela Winkler (Tübingen), Ansgar Schäfer (Konstanz)
Project researchers:	Petra Schneider
Funding period:	Running since 2008
Funding institution:	University of Konstanz, budgetary funds

Research question

Within the scope of this research project we investigate the higher administrative courts in Germany. Our main interest is to find out whether there exists a variation in the influence of these courts within the German jurisdiction. Furthermore we intend to explain which factors influence the potential variation.

For these purposes we will conduct a survey and consult administrative courts, all professors of public law as well as all judges at higher administrative courts in Germany.

So far only little empirical research has been carried out concerning the topic of judicial, political and social influence of administrative courts in Germany.

 

Working schedule

Completed

2008 citation analysis (part I)

2010 survey (courts, professors, judges)

Ongoing activities

- survey analysis

- updating citation analysis (part II)

The current activities will be followed by further research.

 

Data protection and preservation of anonymity

All data is subject to the regulations of the “Landesdatenschutzgesetz Baden-Württemberg”. We would like to point out paragraph 6 (data secrecy) as well as paragraphs 19 and 35 (the handling of data in the context of scientific research).

All information given in the questionnaire will be treated anonymously. Names and contact information such as the e-mail address are not linked to any answers given in the survey. Therefore it will be impossible to relate any of the given answers to the respondent person. Besides, it is not in our scientific interest to analyse any personal data, as our intention is to draw conclusions from aggregated data. Neither will the data set be published in a way that would allow an inference from the given information to a certain person.

 

Supporting institutions

GESIS Mannheim

We would like to thank all pretesters and entrants for their support. We very much appreciate your involvement.

 

Publications

A first project study has been published in January 2009:

Knill, Christoph / Schäfer, Ansgar / Winkler, Daniela (2009): All higher administrative courts are equal? Eine Vergleichende Untersuchung zur unterschiedlichen Wahrnehmung oberverwaltungsgerichtlicher Rechtsprechung innerhalb des deutschen Rechtssystems. Die Verwaltung 42 (1), 55-84.

 

Contact

Feel free to send your questions and enquiries concerning this project via e-mail: c.knill(at)uni-konstanz.de

Universität Konstanz

Fach D 91

D-78457 Konstanz

Tel.: +49 7531-883749

Fax: +49 7531-882381