The Right to Appeal in Court
A person facing a decision connected with state secrets has an effective legal remedy: the right to apply to the court demanding the annulment or amendment of a decision of a public institution, a state or public official, and also to claim compensation of property and non-property damage. This right is particularly important upon refusal to release public information, upon full or partial closure of a session of a collegial public institution, upon classification of public information, as well as upon the creation and processing of incorrect public information or breach of other requirements of the chapter. The decisive procedural precondition is the allocation of the burden of proof: it lies on the responding public institution, state or public official — it is the authority that must prove the lawfulness of the refusal or classification, not the citizen its groundlessness.
Judicial Examination of Classified Information
To verify the lawfulness of secrecy, the law gives the court a special instrument: the court has the right to request and examine classified public information for the purpose of studying the lawfulness of its full or partial classification. Upon a party's motion, the court may conduct this examination in a closed session — thus balancing the interest of protecting secrecy with a full examination of the case. In an appeal the court is therefore not limited to the conclusions submitted by the authority and itself assesses whether the classification was permissible under the law.
The Administrative Complaint Procedure
Before or in parallel with the court, the institution of the administrative complaint exists. Unless otherwise established by law or a subordinate act, an administrative complaint is examined and decided by the administrative organ that issued the administrative-legal act, where a superior of the issuing official or subdivision exists there; a complaint concerning an act issued by the head of an organ is examined by the superior administrative organ. If administrative appeal yields no result, the person may apply to the court for the protection of his rights and freedoms under the procedure established by the Administrative Procedure Code. Administrative proceedings under these rules begin only upon submission of an administrative complaint, and the complaint must be in writing and meet the requirements of the Code.