Hunting Ordinance: Waiver of Consultation
The Federal Department of the Environment does not have the authority to rule on a so-called declaratory request in connection with the consultation process that was not carried out regarding the partial revision of the Hunting Ordinance. This was decided by the Federal Administrative Court in a ruling published on Monday.
Denial of Justice by the DETEC
However, it upheld the complaint of a critic of this procedure on one point.
The Federal Office for the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) should have issued a ruling stating that it lacked jurisdiction and was therefore not entering into the request for a declaratory ruling. By failing to do so, it committed a denial of justice.
On clear positions
In November 2023, the woman approached DETEC with a request to establish various points in a ruling. Among other things, the department was asked to confirm that no proper consultation procedure had taken place during the partial revision of the Hunting Ordinance on the regulation of wolves and ibex.
The Federal Administrative Court notes in its deliberations that the Federal Council is fundamentally responsible for initiating a consultation procedure. It is within its discretion to waive a consultation. This is permissible if no new findings are to be expected because the positions of interested parties are already established.
Declaratory rulings
Acts of the Federal Council cannot be challenged, and in this case there is no exception to this principle. DETEC is neither competent to assess the request, nor does it have the necessary ruling authority.
Furthermore, according to the Federal Administrative Court, declaratory orders relate to the rights and obligations of a specific person arising from a specific set of facts. The appellant, however, was demanding abstract judicial review of norms, independent of any concrete application of a provision.
The ruling can be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court.(Ruling A-6585/2023 of 19.4.2024)
Participate: Due to the disastrous policy of Federal Councillor Albert Rösti (SVP) and the recently approved culling of wolves in Switzerland, request a tax remission from your municipality for federal and cantonal taxes. You can download the sample letter here: https://wildbeimwild.com/ein-appell-fuer-eine-veraenderung-in-der-schweiz/
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on the criticism of recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
