Administrative litigation

It is a procedure for deciding disputes between administrative agencies and citizens over the legality or appropriateness of the exercise of authority by administrative agencies. It is a somewhat ambiguous concept, and broadly includes administrative appeal procedures within administrative authorities as well as administrative litigation procedures by judicial courts, but narrowly refers to only the former. In the case of administrative appeals, the illegal and unjust administrative activity is cancelled, and in the case of administrative litigation, the illegal administrative activity is cancelled, and the state is restored to the state it was in before. Note that, although compensation for damages incurred due to illegal administrative activity and disputes between the state/public organizations and citizens as legal entities under private law (e.g., a lawsuit for the return of land due to the invalidity of a land purchase contract between the state and citizens) are disputes between the state/public organizations and citizens, they are civil disputes to which the Civil Procedure Act applies, and are not administrative litigation as referred to here.

[Yasuhito Abe]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

行政庁の権限の行使の適法性ないし妥当性をめぐって行政庁と国民との間に生ずる紛争を裁断する手続をいう。やや多義的な観念で、広くは行政権内部における行政不服申立ての手続のほか、司法裁判所による行政事件訴訟手続も含むが、狭くは前者のみをいう。行政不服申立ての場合は違法不当な行政活動、行政事件訴訟の場合には違法な行政活動を取り消して、それがなかった状態に原状回復させるのが原則である。なお、違法な行政活動によって被った損害の賠償とか、私法上の法主体としての国家・公共団体と国民との間の紛争（例、国と国民との間における土地売買契約の無効を理由とする土地返還請求訴訟）は国家・公共団体と国民との間の紛争ではあるものの、民事訴訟法が適用される民事紛争であって、ここでいう行政争訟ではない。

［阿部泰隆］

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