The administrative loop is the instrument by which the administrative court gives a body the opportunity, during the proceedings, to repair a defect in the contested decision. It avoids an annulment leading to a fresh round of objection and appeal.
Legal basis
Article 8:51a of the General Administrative Law Act empowers the district court to give the body an opportunity to repair a defect, by an interim ruling stating which defect is concerned and within what period repair must take place. Article 8:51b governs what follows: the body informs the court, and the parties are given an opportunity to respond. Article 8:80a provides that in its final ruling the court decides on the original decision and the repair decision together. On further appeal Article 8:113 and following apply. Alongside the formal loop there is an informal variant, in which the court indicates at the hearing which defect it sees and the body repairs it without an interim ruling.
How it works in practice
The loop is used above all for defects of reasoning and inadequate investigation, less for defects going to competence. For the citizen it means longer proceedings, but also that the dispute is resolved in one go. Responding to the repair decision matters: whatever is not contested there stands in the final ruling.
Where it goes wrong
Parties let the response period lapse, assuming their earlier grounds automatically remain in play. A second point is that the body repairs the defect with new reasoning that amounts in substance to a different decision; that must be challenged. Third, it is underestimated that the court can also give final judgment itself without using the loop.
Related terms
The loop belongs with the appeal to the administrative court and connects to the costs order.
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