Considerations On The Conditions Of Time Limits For Approaching The Administrative Litigation Court, In The Romanian And French Law

We reviewed in this article the legal regime of the time limit in which the prefect - Government’s representative in the Romanian law, namely state’s representative in the French law - may appeal to the administrative litigation court against local public administration authorities documents if such documents are deemed unlawful, in relation to the requirements of European standards enshrining the notion. We pointed out that the time for referral to the administrative litigation court by the prefect on these documents illegality is 6 months in the Romanian law, compared to 2 months in the French law and prior complaint for actions brought by prefect is not required in the Romanian law, unlike its compulsoriness under French law. The European doctrine showed that "reasonable time" notion, enshrined in the contents of art.6 par.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights is autonomous and cannot be defined by strict criteria. In civil matters, the term reasonable is to be assessed from the date of referral to the competent court, but it also includes the length of prior administrative procedure when the referral to the court is preceded by a prior appeal required. Through in the Romanian law, both constituent and organic legislator undertook procedural guarantees provided by European standards regarding "reasonable time", we considered that a lex ferenda proposal on reducing the 6 months period referred to in art.11 par.(1) of Administrative Litigation Act no.554/2004 may be discussed for the appeal to the administrative litigation court.