Legislative inflation - an important cause of the dysfunctions existing in contemporary public administration

• Author: Mihai Badescu
• Position: Member of the Academy of Scientists of Romania
• Pages: 357-369

Legislative inflation – an important cause of the dysfunctions

existing in contemporary public administration

Professor Mihai BĂDESCU 1

Abstract

The study analyzes one of the major causes of the malfunctions currently in public

administration: legislative inflation. Legislative inflation (or normative excess) should be

seen as an unnatural multiplication of the norms of law, with negative consequences both

for the elaboration of the normative legal act, the diminution – significant in some cases –

of its quality, but also with regard to the realization of the law, especially in the

enforcement of the rules of law by the competent public administration entities. The study

proposes solutions to overcome these legislative dysfunctions, the most important of which

refer to the rethinking of the current regulatory framework, the legislative simplification,

the improvement of the quality of the law-making process, especially by complying with the

legislative requirements (principles), increasing the role of the Legislative Council. The

methods of scientific research used are adapted to the objectives of the study: the logical

method - consisting of specific procedures and methodological and gnoseological

operations, to identify the structure and dynamics of the legal system of contemporary

society; the comparative method – which allows comparisons of the various legal systems

presented in this study; the sociological method – which offers a new perspective on the

study of the legal reality that influences society in the same way as it calls for the

emergence of new legal norms; the statistical method – which allows statistical

presentation of the most relevant data that configures the analyzed phenomenon. The study

aims to raise awareness of the negative effects of regulatory excess. This, along with the

legislative instability, as present in the current legislative landscape, not only generates a

diminution in the quality of the law, but also builds the trust in its power to ensure justice,

promote and protect the rights of the individual. Overproduction of laws gives rise to

serious distortions in the application of the law, sometimes even to the impossibility of

applying it, thus annihilating the balance that should exist between norms and their

application.

Keywords: law, inflation, public administration, normative excess, law

enforcement.

JEL Classification: K10, K23, K42

1. Introduction

Contemporary society faces, among other things, an acute crisis of law,

both in terms of enacting the law and applying it.

1 Mihai Bădescu – Department of Law, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Member of the

Academy of Scientists of Romania, badescu. vmihai@gmail.com.