Administrative Law
Course type
Study programme and level
Language
slovenščina
Lectures | Seminar | Tutorial | Druge oblike študija | Individual Work | ECTS |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
30 | 20 | 50 | 4 |
Prerequisites
- Knowledge of the basic legal concepts (within the curricula of secondary schools)
- General perception and the ability to understand basic social concepts
Content (Syllabus outline)
Introduction
Internal (state) and international law. Public and private law. Positive law and natural law. Large legal systems – Anglo-Saxon and Central European legal systems (junctions and differences). Civil, criminal and administrative law. The concept and content of administrative law. The subject of administrative law. The emergence and development of administrative law. The administrative law system. Administrative material and administrative procedural law. The relationship between administrative law and other legal branches and its delineation: administrative and constitutional law (for example, the constitutional arrangement of the government, the administration, the president of the state, the administrative dispute, local self-government, etc.); administrative and civil law (e.g. the regulation of a concession contract, public procurement, recourse to public officials for damage caused); administrative and labour law (e.g. the relationship between general labour law and the law of civil servants); administrative and financial law (e.g. special regulation in the field of public finances, audit in public procurement procedures, etc.); administrative and criminal law (e.g. the protection of personal data and other forms of private information on an individual and the violation of these norms as a qualified form of criminal offence). Administrative science. Sources of administrative law (regulations, customary law, judicial and administrative practice). The entry into force of legal regulations, end of validity and territorial validity, the publication of regulations, errors in the text of regulations, vacatio legis, retroactivity. Legality of administrative operation. A brief overview of the gradual development of EU administrative law. The basic characteristics of the administrative law of the Council of Europe.
Entities in an administrative relationship
The civil legal relationship vis-à-vis the administrative-legal relationship. Administrative relationship: emergence, formation and termination. Public authority and its holders: state bodies, local community bodies, holders of public authority. Public authorization. Legal entities governed by public law, legal entities governed by civil law and individuals as holders of public authority. Legal entities governed by public law – identification criteria: the method of establishment, functions, financing and powers of the founder. The general legal regime of public law entities. Types of entities governed by public law: territorial and specialized entities governed by public law. The public sector (various normative-legal definitions). The legal regime of administrative law as the basis for the operation of certain typical types of legal entities governed by public law – state administrative bodies, i.e. “non-state administration”, local self-government, public companies, public institutions, public agencies, public funds, public-legal chamber systems, etc.
Administrative norms and administrative acts
Legal acts and material (factual) acts of the administration. Unilateral and bilateral acts. The concept of legal norms and the concept of administrative-legal norms. The concept of a legal act and the concept of an administrative-legal act.
- a) Rules of administration – general and abstract normative acts. The concept and characteristics of administrative regulation (abstract administrative rule). The existence and substance dependence of administrative regulations. Time and local validity – right and wrong retroactivity. Spontaneous and non-spontaneous acts. Executive clause. Classification and types of abstract administrative acts. The procedure for adopting abstract administrative acts. The hierarchy of normative legal acts. Unspecified legal concepts in legal regulations. Legal vacuum. Methods of interpretation of legal norms.
- b) Individual and specific legal acts of the administration (governmental acts, acts of business, internal acts, administrative acts). Positive and negative acts. Constitutional and declaratory acts (orders, prohibitions, recognition of ability or qualities, recognition of rights, permissions, approval, findings). Acts issued at discretion (discretion) and legally binding acts. Wrong and unlawful administrative acts. Administrative silence. Composed acts. Decisions and conclusions. Terms, modes, deadlines and reservation with regard to validation. The problem of the finality of concrete administrative acts. The elimination of errors. The elimination of illegality. The effects of revocation and cancellation and the nullity of the administrative act.
- c) Material (factual) acts of the administration or administrative deed. Documentation, keeping records, issuing certificates, informing, adoption of statements, forcing acts, general professional instructions, office operations. Administrative contracts (concept, legal nature). Mixed legal acts. Contracting in, contracting out. Definitions of the administrative contract: parties, goal and content. Examples of administrative contracts in Slovenian law: the concession contract, the contract on the granting of state aid. The legal regime of administrative contracts.
Principles of administrative operation
The principle of the legality of administrative operation. Concepts: legal regularity, constitutionality and legality. The legal regularity of administrative norms and acts. The legal regularity of the legal and extra-legal operation of administrative bodies. The development of the principle of the legality of the administration. The principle of the legality of the administration in a wider and narrower sense. Deviation from the principle of legality. State of emergency. Free discretion, distortion of power. Constitutional-judicial review of the legality of the administration. Tests for constitutional-judicial review. Minimum review, rigorous review, interim review. The principle of proportionality. The concept of the principle of proportionality. The principle of proportionality in the general and individual activity of the administration. Elements of the proportionality test: the admissibility of the objectives, suitability, necessity and proportionality in the strict sense. The principle of equality. The principle of equality before the law: formal and material equality in the application of the law. The arbitrary functioning of the administration. Discrimination: equal treatment of unequal cases, unequal treatment of identical cases, hidden discrimination. Administrative failure to act (silence of the body). The reliability of the law (principle of trust in the law). The reliability of law as a fundamental legal principle. Acquired rights. Eligible (legitimate) expectations and acquired rights. Forms of violation of the principle of the reliability of law by regulation. Connection with the time-validity of regulations. The principle of the division of power (history, scope, examples from constitutional judicial review).
Damage liability of legal entities governed by public law
Basic principles of liability for damage. State damage liability arrangement. General liability for damages. The application of the general rules of private law. Special legal arrangements for state damage liability. Elements of damage liability: damage, unlawful action, causation and guilt. Criteria of due care for officials. The responsibility of employees. Damage liability for unlawful conduct. The basic characteristics of liability for damages: unlawful conduct, liability without guilt. Recourse. Constitutional provisions on liability. Damage liability for proper legal operation (“liability without mistake”).
Public affairs
Public interest. Public good. The definition of the public good. Constitutional provisions on the public good. The property and non-property concept of the public good. Natural public good and public buildings. The constitution of the public good and the cessation of the properties of the public good. Legal regime of the public good. Public good and legal transactions (German, French and Slovenian concepts). Public service infrastructure. Definition of infrastructure. The concept of infrastructure. Infrastructure legal transactions. The use of infrastructure for other purposes. Examples of public infrastructure: ports and harbour infrastructure, energy infrastructure, telecommunication infrastructure, etc. Expropriation. The concept of expropriation. The constitutional elements of expropriation: property, public benefit, compensation. Expropriation procedure. Other forms of acquisition for public property. A pre-emptive right in favour of public law entities. Requisition. Nationalization. Denationalization.
Control over the work of the administration
General control over the work of the administration. Formal and informal control. Control over the legality and work suitability. Professional control. Administrative control and its forms (internal – internal control, hierarchical control, formal instance control, control over the implementation of the ZUP and the rules of office operations). External control of the administration. Representative body control. Political control. Judicial control over the legality and appropriateness of the work of the administration (dispute on the legality of an administrative act and full jurisdiction dispute). Supreme Court control. Constitutional Court control. Exceptio illegalis. Court of Auditors control. Informal forms of administration control (Ombudsman – Ombudsman for Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, control over the general and professional public).
Study Literature
Materials from lectures.
The compulsory study literature also includes the applicable laws governing the subject areas.
Objectives and competences
The subject deals with the most important issues of the development of modern general administrative law: administrative-legal relationships, administrative norms and administrative acts, principles of administrative operation, the liability of public authorities for damage caused, the concept of public affairs, control over the work of the administration, etc. The learning goal is to train students to independently apply the basic concepts of administrative law in the theoretical sense and partly in practice (for example, the ability to distinguish between administrative and other legal acts, the powers of various administrative and judicial bodies in the field of administrative law, etc.). This also establishes a connection between the content of this subject and some of the other most important areas of the administrative law system (in particular: administrative procedural law and administrative judicial protection).
Intended learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding:
- Comprehensive, critical thinking, the ability to analyse, synthesize and anticipate solutions in the field of administrative and other social sciences (interdisciplinarity);
- The ability to creatively use knowledge in the legal and business environments;
- Knowledge and understanding of the history of administrative-legal science;
- The ability to solve concrete work problems using scientific methods and procedures in the field of administrative law;
- The ability to place new information and interpretations into the context of administrative sciences and law.
Students will develop concrete knowledge and understanding:
- Understand the administrative law system and its integral parts;
- The ability to solve complex professional problems in the field of administrative law;
- Understand the Slovenian administrative law system and its place in the legal system,
- Acquire knowledge required for the further study of the positive legal and other subjects of administrative content at the postgraduate level.
Learning and teaching methods
- Frontal form of teaching;
- Explanation;
- Talk / discussion / debate;
- Work with text;
- Other types of student performances;
- Use of the PowerPoint projector for presentations.
Assessment
Written exam: 90%
Project: 10%
Lecturer’s references
Defined in the habilitation documentation.