With respect to most appointments, the cabinet is limited to choosing from a shortlist of three candidates provided by the court.

The current president of the Supreme Administrative Court, appointed in January 2014, is Rudolf Thienel.

Judicial review of acts of the executive branch, broadly speaking, is the responsibility of a system of specialized administrative courts.

[9] The international scholarly literature generally translates Verwaltungsgerichtshof as "Supreme Administrative Court".

[10] Prior to 2014, a minority of authors made strict use of the literal translation, which is simply "Administrative Court".

The panel also has to add an additional four members if it notices it is moving towards a verdict that overturns existing case law; the quorum for any decision that throws out precedent is nine justices.

A plenary session is required to make alterations to the panels system, to change the court's internal rules of procedure in some other way, to choose shortlists of nominees for appointment to the court, and to authorize the yearly activity report.

[31] An office staffed with about 45 researchers and other assistants is attached to the court to aid case managers in this task.

[34] Parties to the trial may petition the panel to open the session to the public and hear oral argument.

In theory, the panel has to grant the request, but the relevant statute defines several classes of exceptions to this rule that are broad enough to render it meaningless in practice.

The panel may also decide to open the session to the public and hear oral argument on its own initiative; it does so only very rarely.