National reports
The seminar organised by ACA-Europe was introduced by Yves Kreins, the Secretary General of ACA-Europe (left) and chaired by Robert Andersen, the First President of the Council of State of Belgium (right). Also from the Council of State of Belgium were three Councillors of State acting as general rapporteurs who provided the seminar's content, each presenting one of the agenda items and providing an insight into court system practices in the countries represented at the seminar.
These general reports were compiled based on questionnaire responses provided by the participants, over 30 of whom attended from the member high courts. These responses are the subject of national reports. The general reports are gathered together in the newsletter 28.
The Council of State of Belgium had asked ACA-Europe to be allowed to provide the scientific support for this seminar, due to the prominence given in the government policy statement passed by the Belgian parliament at the end of 2011 to the issue of reforming the Belgian court system with the aim of improving the procedures that apply within the Council of State of Belgium for the benefit of individuals on trial and administrative authorities. Such a move is, moreover, fully in line with efforts by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Justice to promote more accessible, more modern and faster justice.
The seminar was structured around speeches given by the general rapporteurs from the Council of State. Each of these was followed by a more detailed presentation of a system deemed to be particularly illustrative of the issue in question.
Thus the general report compiled by Pierre Lefranc (middle, accompanied by Thom van Sloten on his right) on the first agenda item, which focused on the power to rectify administrative legality, was supplemented by Thom van Sloten, a judge at the Council of State of the Netherlands. Mr van Sloten described the administrative loop system, which has been in place for some years.
Michel Pâques' (middle, accompanied by Jon Stokholm on his right) general report was supplemented with operational input from Jon Stokholm, a judge at the Supreme Court of Denmark, on the connection between the power of annulment and the power – possessed by a number of courts, including that of Denmark – to award compensation.
The seminar's third and final issue was the effectiveness of the enforcement of the rulings of administrative courts. This issue was the subject of a general report presented by Pascale Vandernacht (middle, with Jean-François Debat to her right). Jean-François Debat, the French Council of State's delegate for the enforcement of judicial decisions, explained and illustrated the role he plays in this area within that institution.
Each of the issues was also the subject of a particularly lively exchange of views between the participants, who numbered over 60 in all.
