Administrative Contract in Administrative Matters

Abstract

Administrative contracts are also known in Slovenian law, where they are mainly used as an instrument to regulate in more detail the (previously issued) administrative act, and generally cannot replace the issuance of an administrative act. Namely, the General Administrative Procedure Act only provides for settlement between parties with opposing (private law) interests. However, the elements of administrative contracts as an ADR mechanism can be found in other (sectoral) legislation, but are often very deficiently regulated, leading to the application of private law rules that govern contractual relations and which are not adapted to administrative law relations. Given all the advantages of alternative dispute resolution and shortcomings of the current legal framework, Slovenian law should also – while respecting all the specific features of administrative decision-making and following the example of selected comparative-law regimes – systematically regulate subordinate administrative contracts (replacing administrative acts), at least for some administrative matters. They should be limited only to those areas of administrative functioning where the administration has a certain margin of discretion in determining the content of the decision on the administrative matter. This means, on the other hand, that the possibility of a subordinate administrative contract should normally be excluded in the case of legally binding decision-making since the content of such a decision is predetermined and the administrative authority is bound by it (principle of legality). However, the administrative authority must have a specific power to conclude such a contract in a (sectoral) law – a general power to conclude subordinate administrative contracts is not sufficient due to the risk of infringing the principle of equality and legality.