The Association
The Association of European Administrative Judges (AEAJ), founded in Year 2000, is the apex organisation of administrative judges in Europe.
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Our Origins
Different transnational initiatives of administrative judges led to a preparatory meeting in October 1998 in the precincts of the Europäische Rechtsakademie (Academy of European Law - ERA), devoted to comparative studies on the respective characteristics of administrative law in the EU Member States.
In Trier, participants agreed on a declaration laying the foundations of a future association of European administrative judges, in the perspective ensuring the goals of administrative justice: granting legal protection to individuals against the State power and controlling the lawfulness of administrative action, in the perspective of the incoming developpement of an Europe of justice and freedom.
Participants appointed a committee in charge of the redaction of the draft Statutes of the future association, which achieved its work in April 1999.
On 25th March 2000, in Trier again, representatives of national associations of administrative judges from seven EU-countries (Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Greek, Italy, Sweden) created, at its constitutive General assembly, the Association of European Administrative Judges (AEAJ), as an apex international organisation incorporated under German law.
Its official adress is located at ERA: European Academy of Law, D-54295 Trier, Metzer Alle 4.
The association is currently registered at the District Court of Wittlich (Germany).
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Our Goals
The goals of the Association of European Administrative Judges, as laid out in article 1 of its Statutes, are the following:
In order to achieve these objectives, the AEAJ is engaged into the organisation of legal seminars and judicial training, through its Working Groups and its partnership with the European Judicial Training Network.
- To defend judicial independence and the Rule of law in Europe, especially concerning administrative judiciary;
- to represent and support the interests of administrative judges and administrative courts at the European level;
- to broaden knowledge and exchanges on European law and Administrative law;
- to provide networking among European administrative judges.
In order to achieve these objectives, the AEAJ is engaged into the organisation of legal seminars and judicial training, through its Working Groups and its partnership with the European Judicial Training Network.
The AEAJ works closely and always supports its national associations.
It collaborates with other European judicial associations: the International/European Association of Judges (IAJ-EAJ), Magistrats européens pour la démocratie et les libertés (MEDEL) and Rechters voor Rechters (R4R) on matters on common interest.
The AEAJ develops public relations with the relevant European institutions and academic institutes.
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Our Members
AEAJ membership encompasses:
- National associations of administrative judges from Member States of the European Union and the Council of Europe;
- General associations of judges including administrative judges among their members;
- Individual administrative judges, from countries where no association is already a member.
For the purposes of AEAJ membership, an administrative judge is defined as a fully-fledged independent judge, whose role is to ensure the legality of
administrative acts and to review decisions from public authorities.
AEAJ may accept individual and institutional observers as well.
AEAJ General Assembly decides on the admission of new members and observers.
Our Membership currently includes 21 national associations of judges and administrative judges, from 20 European countries, and individual members from 15 other European countries, for a total of 35 countries.
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Our Organisation
The leading statutory organ of the AEAJ is the General Assembly, which ordinarily meets once a year.
The General Assembly accepts new members and observers, elects board members, fixes membership fees, andapproves the reports of the board and the treasurer.
Each AEAJ member gets one vote at the General Asssembly. If several members
come from the same country, this country may only express a single vote.
The Board is the governing organ of the AEAJ. It is composed of three to five Board members coming from different European countries, elected for two years up to a maximum of ten years.
The Board elects the president of the association from within. The other Board members are vice-presidents. It appoints the treasurer and the secretary general, as well as other AEAJ officers, and deals with the day-to-day business of the association.
The four Working Groups, organised by administrative judges for administrative judges, are the pillars of the AEAJ. They cover four fields of administrative law: asylum and immigration, environmental law, taxation law, independence and efficiency of the administrative judiciary. Each WG is led by two co-chairs. It organises a seminar on a different legal topic each year.
Any European administrative judge may join one of the Working Groups through the AEAJ.
The Advisory Group, which met for the first time on June 9th 2023 in Stockholm, acts as a think tank including former members of the Board and exterior personalities interested into the field of adminstrative justice.
The Advisory Group assists the Board when needed.
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AEAJ, in a nutshell, is an ambassador of structured cooperation among judges, as well as a trustworthy interlocutor in a transnational judicial arena, promoting judicial dialogue from a practice-based perspective. It ultimately aspires to strengthen the Rule of Law both at the national and European level.
AEAJ fulfills its role in full convergence with the Consultative Council of European Judges (CCJE) Opinion No. 23 (2020), on the role of the Association of Judges in supporting judicial independence.