State Responsibility for Slow Litigation in The Administrative Judiciary

Abstract

The right to speedy adjudication is a universal constitutional right, but nonetheless. For a long time, the French administrative judiciary rejected the state's responsibility for the delay in adjudicating the case, especially if the resulting damage was minor.

However, the pressure of the European Court of Human Rights made the Council to reverse its judgment and follow the same rules of the European Court in setting the standard for a reasonable period. This is after the aforementioned Court decided that the obligation of Member States towards achieving speedy justice is an obligation to achieve a result, and not an obligation to exercise diligence, which requires Member States to make every effort in order to establish this right for the citizens of Member States.

Inspired by the rules of the European Court, the Council of State developed its judiciary, and France also developed its laws to implement this obligation, to decide on the State Council exclusive jurisdiction to compensate for the state’s responsibility for the judiciary’s delay in adjudicating cases over the total period of litigation and for each stage of the case separately. The Council also showed a remarkable tolerance in estimating compensation for the delay in adjudicating the case for a reasonable period to the extent that it decided the judge’s civil liability for the delay.

As for Egypt, as a result of the state’s lack of responsibility for the actions of the judiciary, it is difficult to say that state responsibility can be applied for the failure to implement prompt justice despite the existence of a constitutional basis for it.