[en] In several decisions, the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) has derived the necessity of full judicial control from the circumstance that certain administrative decisions are based on constitutional law, and held the assessment competence of public authorities given them by the administrative courts to be unconstitutional. These rulings throw up more questions than they answer. Their importance lies in the fact that, given a certain intervention intensity, they have, from positions of substantive constitutional law, consequences for court procedures. As concerns constitutional complaints proceedings, however, the BVerfG has until now hardly clarified when such a specific constitutional position is given. The uncertainty in this point will thus necessarily have its effect upon the scope and limitation of the intensity of judicial control, and will now make case law also procedurally unpredictable. (orig.)

[en] Effects on the operation of a fuel fabrication plant caused by processes outside the plant, and effects within the plant in response to said external processes can justify an order by the supervisory authority under section 19 III AtG (Atomic Energy Act) within the scope of the authority's competence. The storage of nuclear fuels at appropriate storage facilities, placed under the responsibility of the Federal Radiation Protection Office, comprises not only the storage process, but also emplacement activities and displacement activities including transport to other storage sites. Head notes of decision by VGH Kassel (Higher Admin. Court), dated 22.12.1993 - 14 Q 2724/93. (orig./HP)

[en] This EC Directive is intended to incorporate integrated pollution control as a mandatory obligation in the legal provisions governing industrial installations licensing within the EC. The article in hand presents an assessment of the Directive and discusses some possible impacts on the German national law in the field of pollution control, which hitherto has been defined on the basis of a preferably medium-oriented approach. A serious point of deviation from the German approach is seen in the fact that the draft's provisions relating to the licensing of industrial installations defines certain pre-conditions allowing a plant in a low-polluted area to be licensed, although the pollution control systems of the plant do not them come up to the state-of-the-art in pollution abatement technology. This is seen as a fact jeopardizing the principle of precantionary measures which has been firmly established in German pollution control law. (orig./HP)

[en] (1) An installation for the conditioning of spent nuclear fuel assemblies for ultimate disposal is ''an installation for treatment of nuclear fuels'' within the meaning of the law, and therefore subject to licensing under section 7 AtG (Atomic Energy Act). (2) On the required facts giving evidence of infringement of substantive law created by a nuclear permit, as a prerequisite of justifying a right to take legal action for declaring such permit null and void. (3) After expiry of the period allowed for taking action on the national level to comply with the EC Directive on Environmental Impact Statements, and during the period of transition with a German act on EIS pending, a pilot plant for the conditioning of spent nuclear fuels did not require an EIS to be performed in compliance with the Directive prior to licensing of the pilot plant. Head notes of decision of BVerwG (Fed. Admin. Court), dated 5.8. 1993 -7 B 112/93 (Lueneburg). (orig./HP)

[en] The article comes to the overall conclusion that the efforts of the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) to make the protection of basic rights more effective by largely restricting the discretionary powers of the administration, as justified as this may be from the point of view of general constitutional law, ultimately leads to legal uncertainties for both legal practitioners and persons seeking legal remedies. It is not only that court proceedings will be delayed by the increased necessity to consult outside experts, but also the practising administrative judges themselves will only slowly be able to adjust to the new situation. It remains to be seen whether the Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) will be able to finally provide for the necessary clarity in the foreseeable future. (orig.)

[en] In its ruling of 4.3.1992, 7 B 93/91, the German Federal Administrative Court in Berlin has stated that it is of fundamental legal importance to clarify the question of the effect upon the - subsequent - licensability of the installation of the cancellation on the grounds of inadequate ascertainment and assessment of the facts in the licensing procedure of a partial licence issued under nuclear law if further partial licences have already been issued after the cancelled partial licence and, further, what the regulatory content of any subsequent licence must be. (orig./HP)

[en] The author states that reprocessing can continue, showing by his analysis that discontinuing the reprocessing of spent fuel from Germany in installations in France or Great Britain would mean a breach of - prior-ranking - Euratom law, which offers equally efficient protection of public security and public health and safety in accordance with the internationally defined and accepted state of the art in science and technology. In addition, such a decision would mean an infringement of the basic principles of the free market economy as laid down by the Euratom treaty and by the EC treaty, as there are no facts or conditions allowing application of the exemption provision given by the EC treaty. (orig./HP)

[en] The nuclear fuels tax is unusual in that it reaches the private end user in the form of electric power and may be charged to the end user by raising electricity rates. This means that the legislative competence of the Federal government results from Section 105 II Alt. 1 i.V. and Section 106 I No. 2 GG, contrary to the opinion of the Hamburg financial court.

[en] With the 11th Amendment to the Atomic Energy Act, a debate find its preliminary conclusion which kept the policy of Berlin (Federal Republic of Germany) in the summer of 2011 on tenterhooks. What is moderate? This question dominated the energy political discussions in the German capital. According to an expertise, only modest lifetime extensions for the seventeen nuclear power plants in Germany without the consent of the Federal Council should be acceptable under considerational law. Based on the planned lifetime extension from eight to fourteen years, the standard lifetime of nuclear power plants only moderately is expanded. This would be possible without the consent of the Federal Council.

[en] In the case of industrial plants being decommissioned by order of public authorities or courts, it is up to the civil courts to decide upon compensation for damage, and who is to pay indemnification. Plant operators find support in the law on government liability in their attempts to defend themselves against decisions taken by the supervisory authorities. The court decision discussed in this article confirms scepticism voiced by experts, whether decisions on government liability are in good hands under the responsibility of the civil courts. (orig./HP)