Facts
The municipal community of Erlinsbach had rejected the grant of communal citizenship to A.X. and her four children. A.X. had filed the application for ordinary naturalization on 7 March 2008. After passing the civic knowledge test, a conversation with A.X. and the four children took place on 17 April 2009. The municipal council decided on 28 April 2009 to request the communal assembly to refuse the grant of communal citizenship. The communal assembly refused the grant of communal citizenship on 27 November 2009.
The appeal against the negative decision was rejected by the Government Council of the Canton of Aargau on 9 June 2010. The Administrative Court of the Canton of Aargau overturned the decision of the Government Council and referred the matter back to the municipal community of Erlinsbach for further processing.
Considerations
The Federal Court had to decide whether communal autonomy was violated by the Administrative Court prescribing to the community how to determine A.X.'s language skills. The court found that communal autonomy is guaranteed under Art. 50 para. 1 Cst., but that the right to appeal (Art. 29a Cst.) requires a free review of the facts and the application of cantonal and federal law by the cantonal judicial authorities.
The Administrative Court had found the community's investigations into A.X.'s language skills to be insufficient and had required a definition of the expected language level, prior notification to the applicant of the expected language level, a defined usable test…