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Composition
and structure
Number of
members :
60
Recruitment procedures and incompatibilities :
The President of the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria is
appointed for seven years by the President of the Republic, upon
a proposal by the Supreme Judicial Council.
The judges of the Supreme Administrative Court are appointed by
the Supreme Judicial Council upon a proposal by the President.
Every candidate to the function of judge must have the Bulgarian
citizenship and satisfy the following criteria :
- have a university degree in law ;
- have the required seniority and the legal experience ;
- not be condemned and imprisoned for ordinary premeditated crime;
- have the necessary moral and professional qualities;
- have at least twelve years of judicial seniority, including five
years as a judge, examining magistrate or barrister.
The judges of the Supreme Administrative Court are not allowed to
:
- be member of parliament, minister, assistant-minister, mayor or
town councillor ;
- exercise the function of barrister ;
- exercise the function of elected member or nominated member in
a public or in a municipal body ;
- work in private companies, be administrator or participate in
councils of control, administration or management of private companies
or cooperative societies ;
- accomplish services according to a civil agreement with state
companies, trade companies, cooperative societies, physical persons
; this rule does not apply to the functions of teacher and researcher
neither to the contracts dealing with royalties.
Internal organization :
The Supreme Administrative Court is subdivided into four specialized
sections in order to rule the litigations related to certain administrative
acts which are fiscal, financial or of customs. They also adjudicate
litigations related to allowances and social insurances :
- dismissal of officials ;
- acknowledgement of the refugee statute to foreigners ;
- restitution of expropriated goods, privatization of public and
municipal companies ;
- planning of territories and of agglomerations etc.
The Court is composed either of three, five, or of all judges.
Three judges :
- to rule recourses of first instance cases, to rule protestations
against some of the non-norm-creating acts taken by the minister,
the company administrators who are directly subject to the Cabinet,
the regional administrators, or any other act that may be challenged
according to the law before the Supreme Administrative Court ;
- to rule the recourses or the protestations in instance of cassation
against the judgments of the civil tribunals on administrative cases
;
Five judges :
- to rule the litigations about the appeals against norm-creating
acts, and recourses in cassation against the judgments made by the
three judges of the Supreme Administrative Court;
The plenary assembly expresses its opinion on the application of
law in cases where the judicial practise is irregular or contradictory.
Publications :
At the beginning of each year, the President of the Supreme Administrative
Court makes a report on the activities of the Court. The report
has to be approved by the Supreme Judicial Council.
Every two months, the Court publishes a review entitled “The
Administrative Justice”, which contains the most important
advices and scientific articles by eminent jurists about problems
on administrative, constitutional and european law.
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Court functions
Jurisdiction
:
The Supreme Administrative Court is the highest judicial instance
of the administrative jurisdiction. It controls the strict and precise
application of the law. Its jurisdiction spreads on all the Bulgarian
territory.
The Supreme Administrative Court rules litigations about the legality
of acts from the Cabinet and from the ministers, and of any other
act mentionned by the law.
The Supreme Administrative Court is the instance of cassation and
rules recourses against judgments rendered by the tribunals on administrative
acts.
The Supreme Administrative Court rules the recourses in annulment
against judicial judgments which have come into effect about administrative
cases.
Organization of the courts system :
As far as administrative cases are concerned, the jurisdiction takes
place in two instances, except for cases on recourses against norm-creating
acts that are inferior to a statute. Theses ones are examined in
judicial instance made up of five members.
The departmental tribunals, since they are the first instance, decide
about the suits against the private administrative acts of the bodies
of local self-government and local administration, town councils,
mayors, etc. The judgments of the departmental tribunals can, by
order of the jurisdiction of cassation, be subject to appeal before
a panel of threee members of the Supreme Administrative Court and
the rulings in first instance by the three judges of the Supreme
Administrative Court can be reviewed by the committee of five judges
acting as judges of cassation.
Powers of the judge (annulment, reversal, compensation...)
The Court controls whether the administrative act is conform to
the law, by checking if the act has been taken in proper form by
the competent body, if all the procedural and legal dispositions
are respected and if it the act corresponds to the purpose of the
law.
The Court can either declare the administrative act totally or partially
void, reform it, or reject the claim. When the case is not being
returned to the administrative body, the Court rules the case in
substance. In the other situations, after having annulled the act,
the Court sends the case to the competent administration which has
to decide the matter in substance, respecting the compulsory instructions
given by the judge on the interpretation and application of the
law.
As a jurisdiction of cassation, the Supreme Administrative Court
examins the validity of the appeal decision and pronounces on the
grievances alleged in the suit for annulment. The Court may either
leave the judicial act from the first instancein force, annul it,
or reform it. When the decision in appeal is irregular because of
important violations of the proceeding rules, it is sent back to
the Court of first instance in order to be reexamined. In the other
cases, the Court of cassation rules the case in substance.
The decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court are obligatory
erga partes. When the act in appeal is declared void, the ruling
is compulsory erga omnes and has to be applied immediately.
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Advisory
functions
Existence
and extent of an advisory authority :
The Administrative Supreme Court gives advices to the National Assembly
on the bills and to the Constitutional Court on the constitutional
cases about the interpretation of the Constitution and unconstitutional
statutes.
Authority and publicity of the advisory opinions :
The President of the Supreme Administrative Court proposes to the
plenary assembly whether or not to publish an advice. The advices
are compulsory towards the executive and the judiciary.
Miscellaneous remarks
The Supreme
Administrative Court seizes the Constitutional Court whenever it
discovers a contradiction between a statute and the Constitution
; it suspends the case untill the decision of the Constitutional
Court.
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