Assessing the Statusof Administrative Law

INPROL Consolidated Response (09-005)

With contributions from Vivienne O’Connor, Richard Zajac Sannerholm, Christina Murtaugh,Carsten Weber, Scott Carlson, and Howard FentonInitial draft prepared by Eve Grina, William & MarySchool of Law, finalized by Scott Carlson, ROLFacilitator

INPROL is a project of the United States Institute of Peace with facilitation support from the Center of Excellence for StabilityPolice Units, the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, the Public International Law & Policy Group, the Swedish Police Peace SupportOperations and the United States Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

SSESSING THE

TATUS OF

DMINISTRATIVE

INPROL Consolidated Response (09-005)

July 2009

Submitted by:

Carsten Weber , Chief, Rule of Law Unit, ODIHR-OSCE

Drafted by:

Eve Grina, William & Mary Law School, Research Assistant, Rule of LawProgram, U.S. Institute of Peace,

finalized by Scott Carlson, ROL Facilitator

With contributions from:

1.Vivienne O'Connor , Rule of Law Advisor, U.S. Institute of Peace2.Richard Zajac Sannerholm, PhD Candidate, School of Law, Örebro University3. Christina Murtaugh, William & Mary School of Law, Class of 20094.Scott Carlson, Senior Rule of Law Advisor, U.S. Institute of Peace5.Howard Fenton, Professor of Law and Director, Democratic Governance and Rule of Law LL.MProgram, Ohio Northern University College of LawThe full text of the responses provided by these INPROL members can be found at

http://www.inprol.org/node/1628.

INPROL invites further comment by members.

Note:

All opinions stated in this consolidated response have been made in a personal capacityand do not necessarily reflect the views of particular organizations. INPROL does not explicitlyadvocate policies.

July 2009 INPROL Consolidated Response (

09-005

) Page 1 of 18

Background:

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for DemocraticInstitutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) is currently involved with administrative lawreform in the OSCE region, focusing specifically on the Commonwealth of IndependentStates (CIS). In preparation for a conference to review CIS countries’ administrative lawreform progress, the office sought resources for assessing administrative law indeveloping countries. An important aspect of administrative law reform in CIS countriesis the decriminalization of administrative codes, to prevent administrative law frombecoming a government tool to circumvent procedural safeguards in criminal law.

Query:

I am looking for documents related to assessments of administrative law systems(questionnaires, assessment reports, etc.). Is there anything out there?

Response Summary:

Administrative law is increasingly emphasized in rule of law programming, but theassessment of administrative legal machinery is a relatively new area of study.This subject is complicated by the fact that there is a wide variation among major legal systems in their approaches to, and formulations of, administrative law.Nevertheless, various international organizations have begun to formulategeneric principles and guidance on the topic, and this emerging body of materialdisplays a significant degree of agreement on basic areas of focus and concern.Consequently, these principles and guidance constitute an appropriate startingpoint for designing and implementing an assessment tool for capturing a pictureof the key features of a particular jurisdiction’s administrative legal system, aswell as identifying potential strengths and weaknesses.