Mediation as Means of Communication for Public Administration in Settling Administrative Disputes

Abstract

Nowadays solutions are sought for public adminis­tration to involve citisens in decision-making as one of the ways of promoting the development of civil society and thus to fos­ter democratic forms of government. Public administration is looking for efficient methods of resolving administrative dis­putes. Administrative mediation serving the purpose of ensur­ing proper communication between the parties to administra­tive proceedings is one of such methods. Mediation in public administration hinges upon the definition of communication rules. The aim of this paper is to define communication from the perspective of legal science and discuss its application in the administrative mediation proceedings. In this article, we discuss the essence, the subject matter and the object of medi­ation as well as the legal regulations governing the mediation procedure and consider the possibility of applying mediation to the administrative procedure, as exemplified by the related case law. The study has been conducted by means of the legal research methods, in particular the legal-dogmatic approach and the legal functionalism approach.