Presentation to No 2 Diplomatic Club
March 7, 2001
Center for the Study of Democracy
The Supreme Administrative Court
Presentation by Mr. Vladislav Slavov, Chair of the Supreme Administrative Court
It is for three years now since the
reestablishment of the Supreme Administrative Court on December
1, 1996. Provided in the Constitution of 1991 as a guarantee for
legality of the acts and actions of the administrative authorities,
the Supreme Administrative Court with its activities has strengthen
its significance for the development of Republic of Bulgaria as a
democratic and rule of law based state.
The exercising of the
assigned with the Supreme Administrative Court Act supreme oversight for precise and
equal implementation of the administrative justice laws and the
ruling on challenges to the legality of the acts of the Council of
Ministers, the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, ministers,
department heads directly reporting to the Council of Ministers,
acts of the regional governors, as well as other acts specified by
law, reflect in the fact that citizens and organizations more
frequently seek this form of protection of their infringed rights
and legitimate interests. This circumstance and the constantly
increasing authority of the Supreme Administrative Court, built up
since the Court renewed activities throughout the last three years,
come to explain the continually increasing number of administrative
disputes considered by it exceeding 33,000 solved first instance and
cassation cases. Together with the judicial activities the
Supreme Administrative Court judges are preparing statements on
draft laws considered by the National Assembly and on cases
proceeded before the Constitutional Court.
During the three years’
period of existence the Supreme Administrative Court has laid down
the basis of modern
information services. An information system has been introduced
allowing the main activities related to the flow of cases to become
automated: starting from the submission of a complaint, initiation
of proceedings, preparation of subpoenas and session protocols to
the announcement of the judicial act that closes the case. The
information database offers various possibilities for searching by
a given criterion – case number, complainant’s name, type of
dispute by matter, etc. Through this information system the flow of
cases can be easily traced down and complete information about them
can be obtained. Automatic filling up of an information library
“Supreme Administrative Court Case Law” including all decisions and
resolutions on cases considered has also been
introduced.
Together with the design
and introduction of the Supreme Administrative Court information
system, which is the side visible for the visitors and outer users,
lots of efforts have been made for designing and building of the
network environment in the building. Each judge or technical
assistant has his own PC, a structural cable system has been built
following modern standards ensuring high speed communication
between the main machines and the separate work sites.
There is an opportunity
for part of the data of the Supreme Administrative Court
information system to be delivered to jurists countrywide through
the Internet technologies as well as for presentation of the
Supreme Administrative Court on its own web site. A project has
been also discussed for computerization of the
courtrooms.
With the reestablishment
of the Supreme Administrative Court the library has also started to
operate. During the last three years the library has accumulated
about 1,100 titles of law literature, a number of specialized
periodicals, dictionaries, reference books, and encyclopedias.
Efforts are being made for its enlargement with valuable editions
related to administrative justice and the Supreme Administrative
Court jurisprudence in the period 1913 – 1948. Automatization of
the library through Integrated Library Information System (ILIS) is
currently going on. The following modules are being designed:
titles electronic catalog, readers card-index, analytical
processing of articles from periodicals.
In 1998 the Supreme
Administrative Court has started the publishing of Administrative Justice periodical
on a regular basis. It provides interpretive rulings of the general
meeting, judicial acts of three-member and five-member panels,
articles and comments on current problems in court case law and law
theory. The foreign case law of the European Communities Court of
Justice in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights in
Strasbourg, published in the periodical, provokes exclusive
interest. Authors of the articles are Supreme Administrative Court
judges, prominent scientists and university professors, experienced
practicing lawyers of great authority.
During the last three
years a Supreme
Administrative Prosecution Office was developed to the Court.
It was established on November 25, 1998, on the grounds of a
Decision of the Supreme Judicial Council made in pursuance of
Article 111 Paragraph 1 of the Law on Amendment of the Law on
Judiciary (SG 133/1998). A Deputy Chief Prosecutor and two heads of
departments are in charge of the Office.
The staff of the
Prosecution Office consists of 22 prosecutors – 18 working in the
Administrative Justice
Department and 5 in General
Legality Oversight Department. The prosecutors in the
“Administrative Justice” department along with their routine
responsibilities participate in the hearing of administrative cases
when provided by law.
For the short three-year
period since its reestablishment the Supreme Administrative Court
has justified the hopes assigned to it with the adoption of the
Constitution of Republic of Bulgaria by the Grand National Assembly
in 1991. The increasing number of administrative cases is an
indicator for the high level of confidence of the citizens and
juridical persons in the functioning of the Court. The Supreme
Administrative Court case law significantly contributes to the
strengthening of the legality in the activities of administration
for the issuance of administrative acts and their
execution.
The text is a summary of the article: Three years since the Reestablishment of the Supreme Administrative Court, published in Administrative Justice Periodical, Issue 5-6/1999. |