In the Administrative Code of the Republic of Moldova, petition, preliminary procedure, and administrative court litigation form a unified mechanism for protecting the rights of citizens and legal entities from government decisions.
A petition initiates the initial review of the issue, mandatory preliminary (pre-trial) procedure verify the legality of the act, and administrative court litigation resolve the dispute in court.
Petition
- This is application, request, or proposal from citizens or legal entity to a public authority.
- Serves as the basic method of interacting with government agencies to obtain information, documents, or make decisions.
- The procedure for its consideration is regulated by the general rules of administrative proceedings.
Preliminary procedure
- This is the mandatory pre-trial stage of verifying the legality and validity of an individual administrative act.
- It begins with the filing of a preliminary application (protest) to the same government agency that issued the disputed act.
- Allows the correction of government errors before going to court.
Administrative Litigation
- This is the judicial stage of resolving disputes between a citizen or legal entity and an public authority.
- Applies if preliminary procedure have failed or the authority has denied the claim.
- Based on the principles of adversarial proceedings and equality of arms, it is governed by the following rules:
Brief explanations
1) Legal regime of the competence of public authorities - basic elements:
The competence of public authorities is the totality of powers granted by law or other regulatory acts to public authorities or persons within public authorities.
Material and territorial competence of public authorities in considering administrative cases:
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- Material competence (Article 54):
is determined by law or, in the absence of regulation, by the body whose activities are closest to the nature of the legal relationship. -
- Territorial competence (Article 55):
is determined depending on the object of the legal relationship (real estate, enterprise, individual or legal entity, place of implementation).
The Administrative Code (Table of Contents)
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- Book I. General Provisions (Articles 1-43):
Administrative production establishes the procedure for interaction between public authorities and citizens and legal entities in resolving petitions (applications, complaints, requests, etc.).
Principles of administrative law. -
- Book II. Administrative production (Articles 44-188):
Participants in administrative production.
Submission of the petition: An administrative procedure may be initiated by petition or it may be part of an already initiated administrative procedure.
Contents of the petition.
Deadlines of administrative production: The general deadline within which an administrative procedure must be completed is 30 days, unless the law provides otherwise.
Rules for the issuance, entry into force, and contestation of individual administrative acts. -
- Book III. Administrative Litigation (Articles 189-256):
1) Procedure for pre-trial dispute resolution
Compliance with the preliminary procedure (Article 208).
Until the administrative litigation action is filed, the preliminary procedure will be followed, with the exceptions provided by law.
2) Rules for filing claims in court
Any person who believes their rights have been violated by the administrative activities of a public authority may file application for administrative litigation.
An administrative litigation may also be filed if the public authority fails to consider the application within the time period established by law.
The main goal is to protect their rights in court and restore the rights of citizens and legal entities violated due to abuse of power, illegal actions, or inaction of public authorities, as well as the cancellation of unlawful administrative decisions or individual administrative acts.
