The principle of objetive Service to the general interest in doctrine

Abstract

The text, without pretending to be exhaustive, addresses a series of questions of a procedural nature through which, as a counterbalance, it attempts to assay the scope of the postulate which synthesises the constitutional and legal position of the public Administration, namely, serving the general interest with objectivity. A series of questions which, more or less uncritically accepted by common, doctrinal and jurisprudential opinion, bring to light points which already temper the orthodox understanding of the principle of legal personality of the Administration, and already have an impact on the right of effective protection of the court. This, in the first place, is the case with the legal standing to apply for judicial review, regarding which different laws (procurement, Civil Register, local councils) have provided an extension which breaks the basic prohibition on their bodies or members to file the pertinent appeal in the contentious-administrative jurisdiction; and, in second place, with the enshrinement, in the text of the Law on the Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction and in jurisprudence, of a series of arrangements or institutions (precautionary justice; the principle of congruence; evidence agreed on the court’s own motion; abandonment and acceptance of the claim, extra-procedural recognition and procedural settlement, as abnormal or extraordinary methods of putting an end to the judicial review) put into question the principle of equality of arms in the proceedings and, even, the actual purpose of the judicial review as an instrument for achieving administrative justice.