Proposals presented to further improve administrative justice

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev reviewed a presentation on prospects for further improving administrative justice.

At the initiative of the Head of State, administrative courts began operating on July 1, 2017. The system strengthens judicial control over the activities of state bodies and officials and helps ensure reliable protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens and entrepreneurs.

Over this period, administrative courts have considered around 150,000 cases and set aside unlawful decisions by state bodies in more than 70,000 instances.

In addition, the courts have issued around 27,000 special rulings to higher-level or other authorized bodies concerning unlawful actions by officials.

These results demonstrate that the work of administrative courts is based on the fundamental principle: “It is not the people who should serve state bodies, but state bodies that should serve the people.” The system plays an important role in ensuring that state bodies operate in accordance with the law and in effectively restoring the violated rights of citizens and entrepreneurs.

During the presentation, the President considered proposals to introduce around 15 new legal institutions based on advanced foreign experience and modern requirements as the next stage in the development of the field.

The new approaches are primarily aimed at ensuring the effective restoration of citizens’ violated rights, strengthening judicial control over the activities of state bodies and expanding the powers of administrative courts.

Under the current procedure, citizens and entrepreneurs have only one form of application to an administrative court for the restoration of their violated rights. The proposed reforms will create conditions for the proactive protection of citizens’ rights – even before they are violated. In particular, four types of claims are proposed to be introduced.

At the same time, the current six-month time limit for applying to court will be revised. It is proposed to allow claims seeking recognition of a violation of the law by a state body to be filed without any time limit.

Currently, citizens cannot challenge regulatory legal acts of local state authorities in an administrative court when such acts violate their rights.

In this regard, officials proposed granting citizens the right to challenge regulatory legal acts of local state authorities directly in court.

Under Article 20 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, legal measures applied to a person by state bodies must be based on the principle of proportionality and be sufficient to achieve the objectives prescribed by law.

Based on this principle, officials proposed expanding the powers of administrative courts and authorizing them to review the legality and reasonableness of the exercise of discretionary powers by state bodies when applying measures against citizens and entrepreneurs.

Effective measures to ensure the unconditional enforcement of court decisions are also envisaged. In particular, if an official of a state body, despite being fined for failure to enforce a court decision, again fails to enforce it, the court will notify the prosecutor for appropriate legal action.

The Head of State supported the initiatives put forward, emphasizing that the proposed legal institutions should serve to effectively restore citizens’ rights in cases of serious violations, ensure the full practical application of the principle of proportionality enshrined in the Constitution, increase the accountability of state bodies and secure the strict enforcement of court decisions.