Los tribunales económico-administrativos y la disminución de la litigiosidad judicial

Abstract

The paper begins by mentioning the need to review the institutional goal of the municipal tax appeal boards, known by their Spanish acronym of TEAMs, of reducing administrative litigation which was introduced in the local government modernisation measures act, Law 57/2003 of 16th December 2003. It then goes on to discuss the advisability of framing the redefinition of this institutional goal conferred upon the TEAMs within the wider context of strategic planning to modernise the justice system. It ends with three proposals for the development of the tax appeal boards in the coming decade: 1) extending the TEAM formula to municipalities which are not classified as large towns; 2) reforming the existing system of ordinary administrative appeals by applying the model of a specific administrative body of a technical nature free from the hierarchical principle represented by the TEAMs, at state, regional and municipal level; and 3) for the existing TEAMs to extend the range of their functions so that, within the municipal organisation, these possible new bodies can be charged with the functions of a «multi door service».