The President is the head of the Federal Administrative Court. The direction of the Court includes the administrative supervision of the judges as well as the administrative and operational supervision of the non-judicial personnel of the Court. In this function, the Vice President acts as the President’s deputy. The President also holds the position of a judge and presides a senate deciding on appeals on points of law. Here, they are equal among equals, which means that he or she has no authority over the other members of the senate. The tasks of the President also include maintaining contacts with other courts and judicial organisations in Germany and abroad.
The Vice President of the Federal Administrative Court acts as deputy to the President.
Dr. Susanne Rublack is the Vice President of the Court.
She was born in Constance in 1962 and studied law at Universität Hamburg. In 1993, she obtained a doctorate of law from Freie Universität Berlin. Ms Rublack began her professional career at the office of the Federal State Commissioner for Data Protection in Schleswig-Holstein, where she was appointed Verwaltungsdirektorin in 2001. In 2002, she was seconded to the Schleswig Administrative Court and, in 2004, appointed judge at the administrative court. Subsequently, she was seconded as research associate to the Federal Constitutional Court and to the Schleswig Higher Administrative Court. At the latter, she had worked as a judge at the higher administrative court since 2010.
Following her appointment as judge at the Federal Administrative Court in February 2015, she became a member of the 8th Senate, which is, inter alia, responsible for economic administrative law and the law on restitution of expropriated property. Additionally, from February 2015 to October 2019, she was a member of the 10th Senate, which was, among others, responsible for municipal law. From August to December 2020, she was also a member of the 7th Senate, which was at that time primarily responsible for the law on the planning of railway lines and on environmental protection, as well as of the 10th Senate.
Since February 2023, she is presiding judge of the 10th Senate, which is now responsible, in addition to the law on freedom of information, for nature and landscape conservation law as well as other sectors of environmental law.
