Concluding Remarks: Towards Convergence?
This chapter charts convergence and divergences in the approaches to liability from procedurally illegal decisions or omissions. It focuses on three aspects relevant in assessing if, and to what extent, the jurisdictions analysed are converging beyond the widespread acceptance of governmental liability for illegal decisions or omissions. The first aspect investigated is whether annulment or other specific administrative law remedies must be sought before (or along with) damages. The answer more often than not turns around the institutional question whether or not the same court is competent for both sets of remedies. A second aspect is whether additional requirements, besides illegality, are needed for a successful damages claim. This might include a subjective element or a more or less objectivized reference to the gravity of the breach. Finally, the actual causal link between procedural breaches and potential damages might be questioned, with courts possibly resorting to different techniques to exclude or mitigate governmental liability. The analysis shows that the different outcomes in terms of liability are such not by any accident but because of path dependency due to institutional choices (general courts versus specialized administrative courts), due to the preference courts may or may not have for remedies other than damages and, finally, due to the deference or lack thereof paid by courts to the discretion left to the administration.