50 Jahre Verwaltungskammer der Evangelischen Kirche von Westfalen

The administrative chamber (Verwaltungskammer) of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia (EKvW) is provided for in the church constitution of Westphalia as an ecclesiastical court, alongside the disciplinary chamber (Disziplinarkammer) and the arbitration board (Schlichtungsstelle). Its members, who serve on a voluntary basis and are appointed for six-year terms, must belong to a member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and be eligible for ecclesiastical office. They are independent and, besides scripture and confession, subject only to the law applicable within the church. According to the administrative court act (Verwaltungsgerichtsgesetz) of the EKD, currently in force in the Evangelical Church of Westphalia, the legal recourse to the ecclesiastical administrative chamber is open since 2021 in principle for all non-constitutional disputes arising from public church law. The administrative chamber of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia existes since 1975. Its procedures are closely aligned with the procedural law for the german state administrative courts. How can this administrative chamber, established according to the state model and acting in ecclesiastical context similarly to the „third branch" (Dritte Gewalt) within the state, contribute to the church mission? How does the evangelical church law relate to scripture and confession on the one hand, and to state and european law on the other? This paper provides an assessment of the administrative chamber's performance after 50 years of existence, as well as current issues concerning court organization and procedure.