Name of the institution : Supreme Court of Justice - Third Chamber Contentious administrative

President :
Justice Winston SPADAFORA FRANCO, President (Chief Justice) of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice

Address :
Organo judicial
Sala tercera de lo contencioso administrativo
Corte Suprema de Justicia
Calle Culebra, Ancon
Apartado 1770, zona 1
PANAMA

Phone number : :
(507) 262.94.58

Fax :
(507) 262.29.66

Composition and structure

Number of members :
3 Justices or magistrates

Recruitment procedures and incompatibilities :
All three members of the Third Chamber of the Supreme Court are appointed by the President of the Republic of Panama, with the latter approval or ratification by the National Assembly of Panama.

The position of magistrate of the Supreme Court of Justice is incompatible with the participation in politics, with the law practice, or any other paid activity, with the only exemption of the position of professor of law at the universities of the country.

Internal organization :
The administrative judge in Panama is made up, only, by three justices of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber, that intervenes in first and last instance, mainly as judge of the legality of administrative acts issued by public officials.

Publications :
All decisions of the Supreme Court of Justice, including those issued by the Third Chamber, are published in the monthly court publication : "The judicial report".
In all cases where the refuted administrative act is declared void, the decision must be published in the Official Bulletin.

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Court functions

Jurisdiction :
The Panamian administrative judge is competent to hear cases regarding the conflicts between administrative acts and legal norms ; he considers the legal value that those laws have inside the hierarchical order of the judicial system, in the form in which it has been expressed.

The issues in dispute presented in the complaints to the Administrative Court in Panama can be :
- that the impugned administrative act is contrary to an internal law. These are the most frequent and common cases.
- that the impugned administrative act is in accordance to the internal rules of law, but is contrary to a law which has approved an international treaty.
- that the impugned administrative act is contrary to an approbatory law of an international treaty without conflicting with any internal law.

It has competent authority in order to hear cases regarding operations made by official workers, as well as for damages caused in exercise of State's activities, as well as for the faulty benefit of the public services and for the questions that arise about the origin, execution or abolition of the administrative contracts, among other matters.

Organization of the courts system :
The greatest majority of the cases requires previous examination by the so-called "governmental review" by administrative authorities, and once completed it remains open to the Contentious-Administrative jurisidiction.

Powers of the judge :
The administrative judge (Third Chamber of the Supreme Court) has jurisdiction to void all administrative acts, and to recognize subjective rights on behalf of citizens.
It also has jurisidiction to recognize damages for wrongful official action. .

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Advisory functions

The administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court gives its opinion on the drafts of decrees and, in general, on all questions for which its opinion has to be required according to a law or a regulation or on which the government would like to have its opinion. The members of the government may ask The Supreme Court for advice on any problem in administrative matters.

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