MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF ADMINISTRATIVE ACTS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE LAW OF LATVIA AND JUDICIAL PRACTICE

Abstract

An administrative act is the main concept and instrument of administrative procedure. Despite the availability of other forms of the performance of public administration (for example, practical step, public law agreement, legislative action etc.), an administrative act is considered as an activity in classic form. Consequently, as a rule, the concept of an administrative act is analysed more frequently in the Latvian administrative judicial practice and legal literature. The article provides an overview of the main characteristics of administrative acts from the perspective of Administrative Procedure Law in Latvia. In the article, the author elaborates on several main characteristics of administrative acts from the perspective of judicial practice and Latvian doctrine. The author also undertakes а comparative analysis between the Latvian Administrative Procedure Law and the newly adopted Law on Administrative Activities and Administrative Procedures of the Kyrgyz Republic. From the above, it follows that the positive part of the definition of an administrative act in the Administrative Procedure Law of Latvia is the same as in the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic. Thus, both laws provide for similar features that a decision must have to be recognized as an administrative act. It is noted that the Administrative Procedure Law of Latvia includes an exception to the general principle that an interim decision is not an administrative act, apart from cases when the decision itself substantially affects the rights or legal interests of a person or substantially limits them. The definition of an administrative act, which is stipulated by the Law of the Kyrgyz Republic “On Administrative Activity and Administrative Procedures”, does not indicate that an administrative act is not an interim or procedural decision. The above does not mean that even now in Kyrgyzstan in order to recognize the decision as an administrative act, there must be no features of a final character. The jurisdiction of administrative offenses cases was changed from the jurisdiction of administrative courts to the courts of criminal jurisdiction. Consequently, the competence of administrative cases doesn’t involve considering administrative offences cases.