Administrative Contract as a Substitute for an Administrative Act in the Resolution of Administrative Matters

Abstract

The further reform requirements to complete democratization and debureaucratization of public administration actualize the issue of regulation and application of the institute of administrative contract in administrative procedure legislation and practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Amendments to the legal regulations of general administrative procedure in the countries of the Western Balkans, in addition to the introduction of European procedural standards in administrative decision–making, also provided for the standardization of basic issues of importance for the procedure of concluding administrative contracts and the legal protection of parties. The modernization of the administrative system and administrative procedure as a whole, in accordance with social changes and processes of integration into the European administrative space, imposes further reform interventions in the direction of harmonization with modern administrative practices, which makes the subject of research of this paper focused on comparative law regulations of administrative contracts as an administrative activity preceded by an administrative act, but also as a consensual modality by which an administrative matter is resolved in certain cases. As abandoning the traditional approach according to which the state cannot be a negotiator supports and enhances democratic outcomes and the social character of public administration, this justifies the instrumentalization of the administrative contract as a ADR–alternative dispute resolution mechanism in administrative matters. In the article, the authors will consider the reform perspective for the legal regulation of the institute of the administrative contract, i.e. their de lege ferenda perspective with legal protection in the general administrative procedural legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina.