Name of the institution : Council of State President : Mrs Haridiata DAKOURE-SERE Address : Council of State 01 Post office box 586 Ouagadougou 01 BURKINA FASO Phone number : (226) 31.73.20 (226) 30.64.15/16 (226) 31.36.09/13 Fax : (226) 31.02.71

Composition and structure

Number of members :
8

Recruitment procedures and incompatibilities :
They are appointed amongst the magistrates from the judicial order. Exceptionnally, they can also be chosen amongst the public servants of the burkinabese administration in regard of their competence in administrative matters (order 91-005/PRES and 91-0051/PRES, from 26th August 1991, on the status of the magistrature profession and on the organization, composition and functioning of the Supreme Court).

Internal organization :
The Administrative Chamber is made up of a President, four Councillors and three " Commissaires du gouvernement ". It is a collegial jurisdiction which sits with three or five members. As the number of members of the Chamber is quite low, the same members sit for every matter. Thus, there is no specialized section. The Chamber holds an audience the first tuesday and the last friday of every month.

Publications :
The Administrative Chamber participates in the preparing of the bulletin of the Supreme Court. It has edited a compilation of communications which had been exposed during a national seminar in June 1998 about the administrative justice. On the solemn yearly re-opening of the law courts, the Chamber adresses a report on its functioning during the preceeding judicial year to the President of the Supreme Court.

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Court functions

Jurisdiction :
Before the effective establishment of the Administrative Tribunals, the Administrative Chamber is the ordinary jurisdiction for all the administrative litigations in Burkina Faso.

Organization of the courts system :
Thus, the Administrative Chamber is still the one and only court in the administrative order.

Powers of the judge (annulment, reversal, compensation ...) :
The administrative judge can annul, interprete, or appreciate the legality of the administrative acts. In electoral disputes, the Court may also reform or rectify the administrative decisions. It can condemn the administration to pay a financial compensation. Finally, it can order the reprieve from execution of an administrative decision.

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Advisory functions

The Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court gives its opinion on the drafts of decrees and, in general, on any question for which its intervention is obligatory according to the provisions of a statute or a regulation, or that have been proposed by the Government. The Chamber can be consulted by the ministers on any difficulty concerning administrative matters.

Miscellaneous remarks

The Administrative Chamber has taken part in several international seminars and congresses about administrative or electoral litigations. Questions about the enforcement of international law have not been referred so far to the Administrative Chamber, but it is bound to happen soon according to Burkina Faso's wishes of regional integration and to its implication in international organizations.

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