Administrative Action and Procedures in Comparative Law

1 Methodological Profiles 1
1.1 Legal Traditions and Methodological Problems 1
1.1.1 The Distinctions in Common Law 4
1.1.2 Administrative Action in the Civil Law Tradition 6
1.2 The Activity – Procedure Symbiosis 9
1.2.1 The Legal Sources of Proceedings 11
1.2.2 Legal Families and Method Clarifications 13
1.3 Administrative Functions and the Crisis of Classical Methodology 15
1.3.1 The Force of Legality and the Rule of Law 16
1.4 The Influence of Community Principles 19
1.5 International Convergence Factors 21
1.6 The Search for Procedural Models 22

2 The Power of Principles 25
2.1 Basic Elements of the Comparative Analysis 25
2.2 The Origins in the Austrian Experience 26
2.2.1 The First Procedural Rules 27
2.3 The Principles of Administrative Action in France 29
2.3.1 The Development of the erreur manifeste d’apprèciation 30
2.3.2 Limits to Executive Power and Codification 32
2.4 Rule of Law and the Anglo-Saxon Experience 33
2.4.1 Controlling Administrative Power in English Juridical Thinking 34
2.4.2 Natural Justice and Fairness 36
2.5 Rights and Privileges in the United States 38
2.5.1 The Genesis of Rights in Rulemaking 39
2.5.2 Administrative Procedure Act and Due Process of Law 42
2.6 Administrative Power and Procedural Rules in Germany 44
2.6.1 The Crisis of Authority and the Centrality of an Administrative Act 45
2.6.2 Proceedings and Legitimatisation of Power 47
2.7 The Composite System in Italy 49
2.7.1 The Theoretical Setting 52
2.7.2 Evolution of Principles 54
2.8 The Spanish Experience 57
2.8.1 The Positivistic Approach 58
2.8.2 Rights in Proceedings 60
2.9 The Diffusion of the Spanish System in Latin America 62
2.9.1 The Evolutionary Context in Argentina 65
2.9.2 The Strong Inquisitorial Characterisation 66
2.9.3 The Spreading of the Principles 67
2.9.4 The Influence of Common Law in Colombia 70
2.9.4.1 Case Law and Procedural Principles 71
2.9.4.2 The Binding Force of the Unification Rulings by the Consejo de Estado 73
2.10 The New Tendencies of Central-Eastern Europe 76
2.10.1 The Extended Coding 79
2.10.2 The Espansion of the Austrian Approach 80

3 Access and Transparency 85
3.1 Secrecy and Disclosure in Administrative Action. The Models 85
3.1.1 The Transition Towards Transparency 87
3.1.2 The Hidden Differences 89
3.2 The Open Government Model 90
3.2.1 The Nordic System and the Internal Acts 92
3.2.2 Transparency the United States 94
3.2.3 Evolution and Divergences with the Swedish System 97
3.2.4 Procedural Aspects 98
3.2.5 Balancing Test and Elements in Regression 101
3.3 The Reserved Access Model 103
3.3.1 Forms in Expansion: A Comparison between the Germany and United Kingdom Experiences 106
3.3.2 The Innovative Tendency in Spain 108
3.3.3 Right of Access and Transparency: The Italian Case 111
3.3.4 Latin America and Central Europe Experiences 114
3.4 Assonance and Applicative Problems: The Relationship with the Discretionary Power 116
3.5 Spreading of Models and Synchronic Perspectives 119

4 Participation and Right to Defence 123
4.1 Investigation within Administrative Action 123
4.2 The French Experience 124
4.2.1 Rights and Interests in Proceedings 126
4.2.2 Débat public and enquêtes publiques 128
4.3 Hearing in United Kingdom 129
4.3.1 The Flexibility of Natural Justice 130
4.3.2 The Expansion of Participation Rights 132
4.3.3 Freedom of Procedural Forms 134
4.4 Right to Defence and Formal Adjudication in the United States 135
4.4.1 Informal Procedure and Balancing Test 137
4.4.2 Rulemaking and Participation 139
4.5 The Regulatory Framework in Germany 140
4.6 The Spreading of the Right to Defence in Proceedings 142
4.6.1 Procedural Guarantees in Comparative Law 145
4.6.2 Investigation and Discretionary Power 147
4.7 The Models 149

5 The Duty to Give Reasons 151
5.1 The Apparent Convergences 151
5.2 The Link between Participation and Duty to Give Reasons in France 152
5.2.1 Features and Soft Formalism 154
5.3 The German Juridical Thinking 155
5.4 The Evolution of Substantial Elements in Italy 157
5.5 The Spanish Approach and Its Influence in Latin America 161
5.6 Fairness and Duty to Give Reasons in the English System 163
5.7 The Characteristics in the United States 164
5.8 Discordances in Diachronic Analysis: Three Models in Transformation 166

6 Limits to Discretionary Power 171
6.1 Logic and Administrative Action 171
6.1.1 Wednesbury and Soft Unreasonableness 173
6.1.2 The Australian Variable 175
6.2 The Proportionality 177
6.2.1 Cogency and Proportional Action in Italy and France 180
6.2.2 The Different Implementation in the United Kingdom 183
6.2.3 The American Exception 186
6.2.3.1 Logic and Balancing Test in Adjudication Procedures 189
6.2.4 The Idea of Proportionality in Latin America 190
6.3 The Links between Reasonableness, Proportionality and Impartiality 192
6.3.1 Bias and Logic in the Anglo-American Experience 193
6.4 The Principle of Good Faith and the Strengthening of Legal Positions 195
6.4.1 Withdrawal of Acts and Legitimate Expectation in Germany 197
6.4.2 The Spreading in the European Context 198
6.4.3 Procedural Expectation. The Spanish Case 200
6.4.4 The Soft Reception in France 202
6.4.5 The Problematic Application in Italy 204
6.4.6 Estoppel and Legitimate Expectation in Great Britain 207
6.4.7 The Conservative Approach in the Anglo-American Experience 209
6.4.8 Self-Restraint in Australia 212
6.4.9 The Expansion in Spanish American Countries 214

7 Administrative Inertia and Procedural Delay 217
7.1 The Times of the Administrative Action 217
7.2 The Inertia as a Mere Fact 219
7.2.1 Characteristics of the English Experience 221
7.2.2 Administrative Delay in the United States 223
7.3 The Legal Effects of Silence. Rejection in the French Experience 225
7.4 Different Approaches in Spain and Italy 227
7.5 The Complexity of the Tacit Consent 229
7.6 Administrative Procedures for Tacit Acts in Latin America 233
7.7 Applicative Problems in Central-Eastern Europe and Evolutionary Tendencies 236

8 Administrative Action and Procedural Models 241
8.1 Classification Elements 241
8.2 The Narrow Investigation Model 242
8.2.1 Characteristics and Distinctive Traits in the Civil Law Tradition 244
8.2.2 The Flexible Intensity in Common Law 246
8.3 The Open Investigation Model 248
8.3.1 Distinctive Profiles 249
8.3.2 The American Experience between Crisis and Innovation 252
8.3.3 New Tendencies in Spain 255
8.3.4 Rulemaking and Participation in Latin America 257
8.3.5 Consensus and Administrative Action in Japan. The Evolutionism of Soft Law 259