At the Limits of the Rule of Law: An Analysis of Administrative Justice

A book that aims to highlight the virtues of a modern Rule of Law within an advanced democracy in which fundamental rights and public freedoms play an essential, structuring, and determining role. Starting from this premise, it analyzes the evolution of administrative contentious jurisdiction up to the present moment, the failures and renunciations in the effective control of Public Administration shown by said jurisdiction, the inadequate use of dogmas and clichés that in reality have only served to deactivate or annul the guarantees of litigants when they naively filed their appeals (technical discretion, regulatory power as political power, enlargement of the concept of political or government act, etc.) or the deficient regulation that exists in many aspects, as happens, for example, with de facto actions. All of this leads to a clearly improvable situation, which certainly casts doubt on whether, in fact, the material Rule of Law has been and is a reality.

The path this jurisdiction has followed to date is defined by some notable milestones—not many, certainly—and a lot of inertia. There is no initiative or creativity (within legality, of course) that is seen in other countries around us, and the result is that many rulings have been and are at the limits of the Rule of Law, and some have even simply fallen outside of it.