The Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic. When to go to it?

Chapters of the article

• History of the Supreme Administrative Court
• What the Supreme Administrative Court does
• The Supreme Administrative Court and the cassation complaint
• The Supreme Administrative Court in practice
• Structure of the Supreme Administrative Court
• Summary

History of the Supreme Administrative Court

The Supreme Administrative Court was established in 1918 as the Supreme Administrative Court of Czechoslovakia. It was based in Prague and was responsible for administrative justice in the whole of what was then Czechoslovakia. It built on the work of its predecessor, the Administrative Court of Justice, which was still operating under the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

During the Nazi occupation, the Czechoslovak administrative judiciary was restricted. In Slovakia, the Supreme Administrative Court of the Slovak Republic was established and continued to function after the end of the Second World War. The original Supreme Administrative Court in Prague continued to function in the Czech Republic and retained a certain degree of independence.

After the liberation of Czechoslovakia, its function was partially restored. However, it was not fully restored due to staffing problems and problems with the Slovak Administrative Court. With the growing influence of communism, it lost its function completely and was officially abolished in 1952.

After the Velvet Revolution, the Supreme Administrative Court was gradually transformed into what we know today. In 1993 it was to become part of the administrative judiciary of the Czech Republic. However, its actual establishment did not take place until ten years later.

What the Supreme Administrative Court does

The Supreme Administrative Court, or SAC, is responsible for adjudicating administrative court cases involving decisions made by administrative authorities. It is therefore tasked with ensuring that the actions of administrative authorities comply with the law. In practice, this means that it decides on extraordinary appeals against decisions of regional courts, which are subordinate to the Supreme Administrative Court in their administrative activities.

In addition, he is responsible for a number of other things:

• It decides on competence disputes between public authorities: If there is a dispute between different public authorities regarding their powers or competences, this dispute may be the subject of a competence action before the Supreme Administrative Court. The Court then assesses which authority has the right to decide on the matter.
• It decides on the matter of political parties and movements: namely, their dissolution, suspension or reinstatement.
• It decides on electoral matters: it decides on electoral complaints (applications for the annulment of elections and voting). The SJC thus ensures compliance with electoral rules and decides on any irregularities or illegalities in the electoral process.
• It is a disciplinary court for judges, bailiffs and prosecutors: the Supreme Administrative Court also has jurisdiction over disciplinary proceedings concerning judges, bailiffs and prosecutors. These occur, for example, in cases of breach of duty or unprofessional conduct.

The SAC and the cassation complaint

The Supreme Administrative Court devotes most of its time to the aforementioned cassation complaints. This is an extraordinary remedy by which you can appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic to challenge the decision of lower administrative courts if you believe that the decision is contrary to law or has other factual or procedural deficiencies.

The Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic has the power of appeal to assess whether a decision of a lower administrative court was implemented in accordance with administrative law and whether administrative procedure was followed.

If the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic upholds the appeal, it may annul the decision of the lower administrative court and refer the case back for a new hearing.

Decisions of the SAC in practice

Many decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court attract media attention, either because of the subjects they affect or because of the broad impact they have.

In the past, for example, the case of the rejection of a cassation complaint by the Prague Municipality against the decision of the Municipal Court in Prague, which annulled the approval for the construction of the Blanka tunnel complex, has attracted media attention. The reason was the failure to comply with one of the conditions of the building permit.

The extradition of the Russian hacker Yevgeny Nikulin to the USA was also a case that was followed by the media. Here too, the Supreme Administrative Court was one of the important players, ruling on Nikulin’s cassation complaint. However, before its decision came down, Nikulin was extradited on the instructions of the then Minister of Justice Pelikán, which was, however, assessed as a premature step and prompted the payment of compensation for non-pecuniary damage in the amount of a quarter of a million crowns.

The Supreme Administrative Court also intervened in the case of an illegally constructed solar power plant built by so-called “godfathers” associated with ODS. The power plant was built on the basis of an illegal zoning decision and building permit, which was confirmed by the Regional Court in Ústí nad Labem and subsequently by the Supreme Administrative Court.

Cases involving covid measures taken hastily by state authorities were also monitored. According to one decision of the SAC, the Ministry’s measure on the compulsory wearing of respirators was illegal.

Structure of the SAC

The Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) consists of a president (currently Karel Šimka), a vice-president and judges who rule in chambers:

• 10 three-member chambers (the president of the chamber and two judges) are in charge of cassation appeals,
• the seven-member Electoral Chamber decides on election complaints for the elections to the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, the European Parliament and the election of the President of the Republic, on motions concerning the registration of candidates for the office of President of the Republic and on the registration of candidates and lists of candidates for the elections to the European Parliament, on cassation complaints concerning local and regional referendums, and on motions to dissolve a political party or a political movement, to suspend or to reinstate its activities,
• a seven-member competence chamber shall rule on competence actions,
• a seven-member or nine-member extended Chamber shall rule on cases referred to it by another Chamber if, in reaching its decision, it takes a different legal view from that expressed in another decision of the Chamber.

Some simple procedural decisions may be made by the President of the Chamber. All the judges form a full court, which decides on the number of chambers on a proposal by the President. In order to ensure uniformity of court decisions, the Supreme Administrative Court publishes the Collection of Decisions.

Summary

The Supreme Administrative Court specialises in administrative litigation concerning decisions of administrative authorities. Its competences include, in particular, deciding on cassation complaints, competence disputes between public authorities, electoral complaints and disciplinary proceedings concerning judges, bailiffs and prosecutors. The SJC has an extensive structure comprising chambers specialised in various types of cases, including electoral, competence and extended chambers.