Administrative Law and Administrative Procedures
This section tests administrative law and the Law on Administrative Procedures No. 350-VI of 29 June 2020: administrative acts, procedure, hearing, motivation and appeal. It also touches the Code on Administrative Offences. Questions ask whether an act is lawful and what the affected person may do.
Core rules
- An administrative act is a decision of an administrative body addressed to an individual or a group, creating, changing or terminating rights and duties. It must be issued within competence, on a legal basis, for a proper purpose and proportionately.
- Key principles: legality; reasonable time; openness; right to be heard before an adverse act; motivation; protection of legitimate expectations; appeal.
- The body must state facts, legal grounds and reasons. A refusal must allow the person to understand and challenge it.
- Appeal may be administrative, to a higher body, and judicial. Time limits matter; missing them can bar review.
- Administrative offences are governed by the Code on Administrative Offences, not by the Administrative Procedures Law.
Worked example
A licensing authority refuses a permit in a one-line letter: Refused. The defect is not only rudeness. The act is inadequately motivated, the applicant was not heard, and the legal basis is absent. The applicant may appeal to the superior body and then to court. A lawful refusal would cite the unmet licensing requirement, the evidence, and the appeal route.
Traps
Do not call every letter an administrative act; internal instructions and information letters may not be. Do not skip administrative appeal where the law requires pre-trial review. Do not miss deadlines or confuse an administrative offence with an administrative act.