Popular action |

The Popularklage (popular action or actio popularis) is a special feature of the Bavarian constitution. Every citizen – personally affected or otherwise – who thinks that a Bavarian legal norm violates the basic rights of the Bavarian constitution can file suit before the Bavarian Constitutional Court.
A development plan is approved in a Satzung or ordinance, a legal norm of the responsible municipality, and it can be attacked through a popular action.

In such cases, the Bavarian Constitutional Court carries out a review for arbitrariness based on the Bavarian Constitution. If the outer limits of discretion have been exceeded – in other words, if it is impossible to find an objective basis for the approval of the regulation and thus for the acceptance of an encroachment on the basic rights (such as Environmental Protection, Principle of Equality, etc.) – then the Constitutional Court can declare the regulation invalid.

The development plan affecting the Europe Center was approved by the city of Immenstadt after careful consideration of all issues and concerns. In our opinion there is no basis for speaking of “arbitrariness” in connection with that decision.

The Diamond Way Buddhist Foundation as property holder is not yet involved in the process. Nevertheless, the board of directors regrets this development exceedingly, since it has been working on the concept since 2007 and the Europe Center is the very heart of the organization. They very much hope that the lawsuit against the city will have no effect on their future plans.