Institutional litigation

It refers to a lawsuit regarding a dispute between state or public organization agencies over the existence or exercise of authority (Article 6 of the Administrative Case Litigation Act). Litigation is generally a system for resolving disputes over rights between right holders, and authority disputes between agencies within right holders should be resolved administratively or politically without the aid of judicial power. However, the legislator has exceptionally allowed for resolution through litigation in cases between agencies that can be resolved by application of law and where it is considered appropriate to seek the judgment of a fair and impartial court. Therefore, institutional lawsuits are not required by the Constitution, but are introduced by legislative policy. As a result, institutional lawsuits can only be brought in cases specified by law and by persons specified by law (Article 42 of the same act). Examples of such cases under current law include lawsuits over disputes between the head and assembly of a local government (Article 176 of the Local Autonomy Law), lawsuits over the involvement of the national or local government in a local government (Articles 251-5 and 252 of the same law), and lawsuits seeking substitute execution of statutory entrusted affairs (Article 245-8 of the same law), but the latter two are disputes between independent organizations, and should be considered as disputes between rights holders rather than as agency lawsuits. There is a precedent in which the Resident Registration Network Lawsuit brought by Suginami Ward against Tokyo Metropolitan Government (a lawsuit requesting the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to receive data only from those who wish to participate in the Resident Registration Network) was dismissed as agency lawsuit, but because there was no explicit provision in the law (Tokyo High Court ruling of November 29, 2007), this is also a dispute between rights holders, and should be considered as a lawsuit within the scope of judicial power rather than agency lawsuit.

[Yasuhito Abe]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

国または公共団体の機関相互間における権限の存否またはその行使に関する紛争についての訴訟をいう（行政事件訴訟法6条）。訴訟は一般に権利主体間の権利をめぐる紛争を解決する制度であって、権利主体の内部における機関相互の権限紛争は、本来、司法権の手を借りず、行政的ないし政治的に解決されるべきものである。しかし立法者は、機関相互の争いでも、法律の適用によって解決しうるものであって、公正中立な裁判所の判断を仰ぐのが適当と考えられるものについて、例外的に訴訟による解決を認めた。したがって、機関訴訟は憲法上の要請ではなく、立法政策により導入されるものである。その結果、機関訴訟は、法律に定める場合において、法律に定める者に限り提起することができる（同法42条）。現行法上の例としては、地方公共団体の長と議会の争いをめぐる訴訟（地方自治法176条）、地方公共団体に対する国または地方公共団体の関与に関する訴訟（同法251条の5、252条）、法定受託事務の代執行を求める訴訟（同法245条の8）などがあるとされるが、後二者は独立の団体の間の争いであるから、機関訴訟ではなく、権利主体相互間の争いと言うべきである。判例では杉並区が東京都を被告に提起した住基ネット訴訟（住基ネット参加希望者だけのデータを受信せよと都に求めた訴訟）を機関訴訟として、法律の明文の規定がないから不適法として却下するものがある（東京高裁2007年11月29日判決）が、これも権利主体の間の争いであるから、機関訴訟ではなく、司法権の範囲内の訴訟と見るべきであろう。

［阿部泰隆］

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