Administrative Courts in Lithuania: History, Evolution, the Present, and Perspectives

Abstract

Judicial review of the legality of administrative acts is one of the most important elements of the rule of law. The institute of administrative justice began to develop in the 19th century: in 1872 The French Council of State was given a function of judicial review, the Administrative Court in Vienna (Austria-Hungary) was established in 1867, in Baden (Germany) in 1863, etc. After the First World War, administrative courts were established in several European countries. The law on the Supreme Administrative Court and its Jurisdiction in Czechoslovakia was adopted in 1918. The Law for the Supreme Administrative Court in Poland was issued in 1922. Administrative courts were also functioning in other countries (Latvia, Estonia). In Lithuania administrative courts were established for the first time in 1999, although up to fifteen draft laws on the Administrative Court were prepared in the interwar Lithuania. This article was written on the occasion of the centenary of the Polish administrative courts. Thus, the purpose of the article is to familiarize the readers with Lithuanian administrative courts, starting with the development of the institute of administrative justice from 1918 and ending with the perspectives of judicial review formed in that time. Therefore, the authors of the article set the following objectives: to remind of the origins of administrative justice in Lithuania from 1918 to 1940; to reveal the course of the establishment of administrative courts after the Restoration of the Independence of the Republic of Lithuania in 1990, briefly discussing who and on the basis of which legal acts controlled the legality of administrative acts during the Soviet era; to provide the insights of institutional development as well as competence development of the administrative courts; to present contemporary administrative process, giving some insights about the status quo; to present the features of and the most relevant reforms of administrative process. Abbreviations used in the article are as follows: CSARL – Central State Archive of the Republic of Lithuania, MDWLLAS – Manuscript Department of the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.