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Using Legal Fictions to Deal with Administrative Silence: The Case of Romania

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The Sound of Silence in European Administrative Law

Abstract

The interplay between negative and positive silence has undergone a specific development in Romania. The principle of negative fiction was overturned by law to accommodate the services directive but again reversed by courts. Our research showed that public institutions try to comply with the mandatory deadlines when answering petitions, but in a formal way because some institutions wait until the last day to answer or they provide incomplete answers. Even though the response rate to citizens’ requests is still low in Romania, positive silence as a way to discourage administrative inactivity was limited by courts due to practical implications. Few citizens use legal remedies against administrative silence, which means that citizens often settle with the lack of response or decide not to take upon themselves the task of challenging the lack of response in courts. There are no strategies envisaged to improve the processing time of citizens’ requests.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Hințea and Țiclău (2017).

  2. 2.

    See Romanian Parliament (n.d.). Draft proposal of Administrative Code.

  3. 3.

    Liebert et al. (2013).

  4. 4.

    Radu and Dragoș (2019).

  5. 5.

    Trăilescu (2010, pp. 8–9).

  6. 6.

    Iovănaș (1977), p. 42.

  7. 7.

    See, for details, Dragoș and Neamțu (2009).

  8. 8.

    Art.75 of the Code on fiscal procedure.

  9. 9.

    The most important ones are Law no. 18/1991, Law no. 169/1997, Law no. 400/2002, Law no. 247/2005, Law no. 112/1995, and Law no. 10/2001.

  10. 10.

    Decision no. 819/2012, File no. 491/54/2011 (http://legeaz.net/spete-contencios-inalta-curte-iccj-2012/decizia-19-2012).

  11. 11.

    On 12 October 2010, the ECHR delivered a pilot judgment in the case of Maria Atanasiu and Others v. Romania (Case of Maria Atanasiu and others v. Romania, judgment of 3 October 2010, applications 30767/05, 33800/06), in which it held that the Romanian State was to take measures to ensure the effectiveness of the compensation and restitution mechanism and the effective protection of the rights set forth in article 6 (1) ECHR and article 1 of Protocol no. 1 to the Convention.

  12. 12.

    Decision no. 1221/2012, File no. 911/46/2011 (http://legeaz.net/spete-contencios-inalta-curte-iccj-2012/decizia-1221-2012).

  13. 13.

    Decision no. 118/2013, File no. 1233/54/2011 (http://legeaz.net/spete-contencios-inalta-curte-iccj-2013/decizia-118-2013).

  14. 14.

    Manea (2014), p. 3. The same fiction was applied before the communist era—see Rarincescu 1936.

  15. 15.

    Podaru (2003, p. 87).

  16. 16.

    See, for details, Dragoș and Neamțu (2012).

  17. 17.

    See, for details, Sect. 13.6 of the chapter.

  18. 18.

    Călărași Tribunal, Decision no. 40/2016.

  19. 19.

    Bucharest Court of Appeal, Decision no. 3822/2012.

  20. 20.

    Călăraşi Tribunal, Decision no. 40/2016.

  21. 21.

    Bucharest Tribunal, Decision no. 29/2016.

  22. 22.

    Maramureș Tribunal, Decision no. 1558/2016.

  23. 23.

    Stoica and Maria (2016).

  24. 24.

    National Agency for Fiscal Administration (2016), p. 34.

  25. 25.

    National Agency for Fiscal Administration (2017), p. 27.

  26. 26.

    Official Journal of Romania no. 291 from 25 April 2003.

  27. 27.

    See for details Dragoș and Neamțu (2012).

  28. 28.

    Official website of the Romanian Point of Single Contact, available at https://edirect.e-guvernare.ro/SitePages/landingpage.aspx.

  29. 29.

    Commission Staff Working Document, Detailed information on the implementation of Directive 2006/123/EC on services in the internal market, Accompanying the document Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the implementation of the Services Directive. A partnership for new growth in services 2012–2015, Brussels, 8.6.2012, SWD (2012)148.

  30. 30.

    Puie (2010).

  31. 31.

    Pitești Court of Appeal, Decision no. 2675/R-CONT/2012.

  32. 32.

    Ghencea (2013, p. 135).

  33. 33.

    Radu and Chelaru (2018).

  34. 34.

    Lazăr (2004, p. 182).

  35. 35.

    Gorj Tribunal, Decision no. 884/2015.

  36. 36.

    Highest Court of Cassation and Justice, Decision no. 131/2011.

  37. 37.

    Constanța Court of Appeal, Decision no. 106/CA/2009.

  38. 38.

    See Sect. 13.6.4.

  39. 39.

    Timiș Tribunal, Decision no. 1473/2011.

  40. 40.

    Available at http://mdrap.ro/sna-2016-2020.

  41. 41.

    Dragoș and Neamțu (2013), p. 72.

  42. 42.

    Art. 7 of the Law no. 554/2004.

  43. 43.

    See Dragoș et al. (2014, p. 421).

  44. 44.

    See the reports of the National Agency of Fiscal Administration, where only around 16% of administrative appeals are admitted, although at least 30% of the rest are annulled by the court.

  45. 45.

    Highest Court of Cassation and Justice, Decision no. 4522/2014.

  46. 46.

    Alba Court of Appeal, Decision no. 2010/2011.

  47. 47.

    Cluj Court of Appeal, Decision no. 184/2010.

  48. 48.

    Highest Court of Cassation and Justice, Decision no. 3324/2007, not published.

  49. 49.

    Dragoș et al. (2010, p. 61).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Good Governance Studies, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Dacian C. Dragos, Bogdana Neamtu & Bianca Radu

Authors
  1. Dacian C. Dragos
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  2. Bogdana Neamtu
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  3. Bianca Radu
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Correspondence to Bogdana Neamtu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Good Governance Studies, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Dacian C. Dragos

  2. Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Polonca Kovač

  3. Faculty of Law, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Hanna D. Tolsma

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Dragos, D.C., Neamtu, B., Radu, B. (2020). Using Legal Fictions to Deal with Administrative Silence: The Case of Romania. In: Dragos, D., Kovač, P., Tolsma, H. (eds) The Sound of Silence in European Administrative Law. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45227-8_13

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