Administrative Appeal in Serbian Law
This paper addresses the issues of concept, features and place of the administrative appeal in Serbian administrative law. Special attention is given to the relation between administrative appeal and judicial review of administrative acts. The paper is part of a wider analysis regarding the effectiveness of administrative appeals in the framework of administrative justice on European level, put forward at the EGPA Conference in Toulouse in 2010. The paper is limited to scrutiny of normative aspects of administrative appeal, with the intention to be followed by an empirical research on its effectiveness.
THE CAPACITY OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT IN SERBIA TO DEAL WITH ASYLUM CASES
This paper explores the capacity of the Administrative Court in Serbia to adjudicate asylum cases, which have been in its jurisdiction since the Court’s establishment in 2010. The analysis of its asylum case law is divided into three phases, based on both temporal and substantive criteria. It demonstrates that the best period in handling asylum cases was 2014–2015, during which judgments of the Court significantly improved the decision-making of administrative authorities. Nevertheless, this research has identified several issues that have negatively influenced the work of the Administrative Court in the field of asylum law: the Court’s excessive inherited caseload, the influx of new claims, a small number of asylum-related cases, the insufficient number of judges, the extremely broad jurisdiction of the Court, as well as a lack of specialized panels within the Court. The last problem is identified as the major one and the authors propose concrete steps that should be undertaken in order to increase the capacity of the Administrative Court to deal with asylum cases. Lessons learned from Serbia, as a country in the middle of the Western Balkan migration route, can be useful for all other countries along it.
The Relationship between Ombudsman, Government, and Citizens: A Survey Analysis
textabstractSince the 1960s, ombudsmanship has become increasingly popular. Although there is a great deal of literature on ombudsmen, existing research rarely focuses on the people who actually use the ombudsman’s services. This article examines those who seek the help of ombudsmen in Belgium, and asks whether ombudsmen’s intervention has a noticeable effect on citizens’ confidence in government and public administration. Based on three surveys of 626 complainants, our analysis suggests that we should not see the ombudsman in Belgium as merely an instrument to help citizens but that they can also function as “change agents” and provide early warnings of problems in public administration. The role of ombudsmen in directly strengthening trust in government is limited at best. Furthermore, it seems that the profile of ombudsman complainants is skewed; our
findings indicate that the socially disadvantaged are less likely to use the institution.