Administrative Law and Administrative Litigation

Administrative law regulates the relationship between individuals and companies on the one hand and public authorities on the other. Every act and action of the administration must comply with the law; annulment actions may be brought against unlawful acts and full remedy (compensation) actions may be brought for damages arising from such acts. Deadlines in administrative courts are short and procedural rules are strict; properly structuring the legal-remedy process directly determines the outcome.

Key Areas of Service

• Annulment actions against administrative acts and stay-of-execution requests
• Full remedy (compensation) actions for damages arising from the acts and actions of the administration
• Applications and litigation against administrative fines
• Civil-servant disputes (appointment, discipline, security-clearance investigations)
• Applications against regulatory acts of customs and trade authorities
• Disputes concerning zoning, licences and municipal acts
• Complaint and review-complaint applications in public procurement proceedings
• Ensuring that mandatory administrative applications (Administrative Procedure Law Art. 11-13) are filed within time and in proper form

Deadlines

The general deadline for filing an administrative action is sixty days from written notification, or thirty days in matters within the jurisdiction of the tax courts. Special legislation may prescribe shorter periods. Subtle points such as the form of service, the suspension of the deadline by an appeal to a superior authority and constructive rejection are frequent sources of error; deadlines must be calculated carefully as soon as the act is served.

Our Approach

We carry out a full review of the act in terms of its authority, form, reason, subject-matter and purpose; in urgent cases, we support the stay-of-execution request with strong evidence and precedent to prevent irreparable harm.