Abstract

The German Law on Administrative Assets

General Administrative Law, Special Administrative Law, Rubble Heap – or what

The “law on administrative assets” treats the legal status of assets used by the administration to fulfill its tasks or provided by the administration for public use. It is part of the German “classical canon” of general administrative law, but is increasingly skipped in modern textbooks and monographs on general administrative law. This is related to the considerable uncertainties concerning its scope and content. Therefore, the question arises if a “law on administrative assets” as an autonomous field of law still exists.

To be able to answer this question, the article analyses the relevant case law by differentiating between cases concerning movable administrative assets and cases concerning immovable administrative assets. The analysis reveals that a special legal status of movable administrative assets cannot be determined in German law. Concerning immovable administrative assets the legal situation is more complex. In this regard the analysis of the case law reveals that the law on administrative assets should not be understood as a public law equivalent of private property law, but as a field of law concerning the rules regarding the use, the protection, and the maintenance of public infrastructures.