Matters related to key features of the by-law contestation administrative proceedings

Abstract

The article points out that in cases concerning appeals against normative acts in the presence of obvious signs of its unlawfulness and violation of the rights or legitimate interests of a person who has filed a lawsuit against such an act, this lawsuit can be accompanied by an interim remedy stopping the effect of the respective normative act. This is allowed in exceptional cases when, on the basis of the evidence available in the case, the court is convinced that the contested act clearly contradicts the criteria of its lawfulness established by law on administrative proceedings. At the same time, one cannot claim that an exceptional case for stopping the effect of a normative legal act, when the norms of substantive law establish an alternative procedure for the exercise of rights affected by the contested normative legal act (in particular, if it is possible to act on the basis of normative acts having higher legal force). In addition, when deciding the issue of suspending the effect of a normative legal act, the court must observe the limits of judicial intervention in the activities of their issuers and respect their discretionary powers, primarily those that lie in the domain of their exclusive executive functions, especially those that are characterized by political and narrowly-specialized character.
 The author, moreover, maintains that in order to encourage plaintiffs to use their right to claim and procedural rights in good faith, it is proposed to establish the date when the plaintiff learned or should have learned about the violation of his rights and legitimate interests. It is also clarified that termination of a person’s participation in social relations, the participants of which are assigned rights and duties by the relevant normative act, as well as the termination of the normative legal act itself, is the starting point for calculating the timeframe for its appeal to court.
 The article also indicates that there are critical gaps in the legislative provisions, which give rise to uncertainty regarding the impact of the published announcement on the appeal of a normative act on timeframes of appeal to the administrative court for other addressees of the relevant normative legal act, as well as regarding the procedural status of those who expressed their intention to join before consideration of the case on its unlawfulness.