Effectiveness of Judicial Protection Against Administrative Silence in the Czech Republic

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the issue of judicial protection in case of (or against) administrative silence (inactivity) and its effectiveness on the case study of the Czech Republic. The aim of judicial protection against administrative silence is to help solving or terminating administrative silence quickly, otherwise, an imaginary vicious circle is created. The purpose of the paper is to verify whether judicial protection is indeed effective by surveying the related legislation and court practice (especially the length of proceedings) dealing with the so-called inactivity. The methods of analysis applied are normative analysis, literature review, statistical analysis of decision-making activities of courts and deduction. Our findings establish that due to the excessive length of court proceedings and incomprehensible legal regulation it is difficult to view the judicial protection against administrative silence as being a speedy and effective instrument of remediation of inactivity on the part of administrative authorities. The results can serve as a ground to compare the situation with other similar countries and to exchange best practices.

Keywords: administrative silence, administrative justice, constitutional court, effectiveness, judicial protection, Czech Republic

JEL Classification: K41