3009 Comparative Administrative Procedural Law
Content
- Administrative procedure law in supra/national legal systems and fundamental human rights of good governance (The impact of the constitutional system and tradition on administrative procedure law in selected countries, tradition and modernisation of administrative procedure (USA, Germany and Austria, France and Scandinavia)
- The notion of public interest in administrative cases in national legal systems, in EC law and ECHR practice
- The relation between general and sector-specific regulation (subsidiarity; EU characteristics in terms of competition and state aid)
- Basic principles of administrative procedure in the legal system and case law of the EC, EU countries, former Yugoslav republics, and USA – general: The right to good administration, The rule of law, legality (material and formal), justified expectations and proportionality, equality (non-discrimination) before the law, impartiality
- Basic principles in administrative procedure: The right to be heard, Standards of proof, Accessibility and transparency, access to the file, confidentiality and protection of secrecy, Deciding within reasonable time, Giving/stating reasons, Efficiency of administrative procedure
- Parties in administrative procedure – comparison between selected countries (Slovenia, former Yugoslav republics, Austria, Germany, France, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Japan, etc.) and within the EU: Material and territorial jurisdiction of decision-makers in specific administrative matters, Conditions for officials and exclusion as a result of partiality
- Characteristic and status of the party, representation of the party
- Rules governing the course of procedure – comparison between selected countries and within the EU (Initiating the procedure, Using language/s in administrative procedure, electronic communication, Establishing and proving facts, Issuing decisions , The importance of notification for the application of legal effects, The validity of administrative acts (enforceability, annulment, time-bar, etc.)
- Mediation in administrative procedure, public law contract
- Enforcement of individual administrative acts in national and supranational environments
- Legal remedies
- Judicial review and other forms of supervision over the legality of specific administrative acts in EC law and selected EU countries
Objectives and competences
- The course will examine the significance of administrative procedure law for work in (national or supranational) public administration considered as part of instrumental as well as institutional public management,
- the course will outline the key procedural institutions of comparative administrative law (EC law and national legislations), the understanding and interpretation of which contributes to the development of administrative and legal sciences. Students will become familiar with complex procedural statuses that arise in decision-making on the issue of general acts regulating decisions in specific cases as well as in the conduct of procedures that deal with recognition or imposition of the rights, duties and legal interests of the parties in administrative and other public law areas, in accordance with the legislation in force in Slovenia and in comparable countries and the EU; administrative procedure law will be highlighted as an instrument to ensure the respect of constitutional or fundamental human rights; the course will also explain and examine the importance of administrative procedure law as a business process in public administration and other public bodies in terms of development of public policy,
- students will gain the capacity to recognise environment-specific determinants and the main differences among the systems of administrative (procedure) law based on the Anglo-Saxon, German, French and Scandinavian models,
- students will acquire the skills to independently search for and develop new knowledge and solve the most complex technical and scientific issues in the interdisciplinary and comparative law perspectives of administrative law and management sciences.
Students will acquire the following course-specific competences:
- the capacity to understand and upgrade theoretical knowledge with emphasis on the status and functional definition of public administration bodies in Slovenia, selected countries (Austria, Germany, France, USA, Finland, etc.) and the EU,
- the theoretical knowledge for a systematic formulation of implementing regulations at the level of state and municipal administrative and other bodies, public service providers or holders of public functions, following the trends of European administrative law and the requirements of EC law,
- the ability to master the evaluation approaches to business, professional and research projects and policies in relation to or with emphasis on aspects of administrative procedure law and the relation between administration and the judicial system,
- the capacity of reflective research and the capacity to carry out technical and research work in interdisciplinary and comparative areas of administrative and management sciences, and consequently the competence to critically monitor (evaluate, improve) known factors and to develop new solutions to scientific problems and practice of comparative administrative (procedure) law,
- the competence to work independently on scientific and/or technical projects and the most complex work systems concerning administrative procedure law, together with the capacity to identify the related problems in practice, with constant relation to the comparative and evaluation approaches and with consideration of the relations in the interdisciplinary field of administrative law,
- the course will outline the theoretical background and practical application of students’ research work, confronting it with the basic epistemological and methodological problems in the light of contemporary findings of scientific theory; students will eventually master the instruments necessary for self-reflection and criticism of scientific research of others, with emphasis on the legal aspects of administrative science.