Liability in administrative law

• Author: Catalin-Silviu Sararu
• Profession: PhD, is Associate Professor at the Law Department of Bu-charest University of Economic Studies
• Pages: 69-78

Chapter IX

Liability in administrative law

1. The notion of liability in administrative law

The legal responsibility represents a complex of related rights and obli-

gations, provided by the legal norms, rights and obligations that arise as a result

of the commission of an unlawful act and which constitute the framework for the

fulfillment of the state constraint, that is to say the application of the sanction1.

Legal liability is the most serious form of social responsibility.

Liability in administrative law is a form of legal liability that intervenes

when administrative law rules are violated by committing an unlawful adminis-

trative act, also called administrative misconduct.

The author of the administrative offense is the passive subject of the lia-

bility while the public authority that has the competence to apply the sanction is

the active subject of the liability.

2. Forms of liability specific to administrative law

Depending on the type of disciplinary deviation and its consequences,

three forms of liability specific to administrative law can be identified:

a) the administrative-disciplinary liability - it is involved in the case

of committing a disciplinary deviation by which violates norms of administrative

law. b) contraventional liability - it is involved in the case of committing an

unlawful act that is expressly qualified by law as a contravention.

c) administrative-patrimonial liability - it intervenes if by committing

an unlawful act, rules of administrative law are violated by a public authority and

its obligation to repair the material or moral damages produced.

3. The administrative-disciplinary responsibility

3.1. The notion of administrative-disciplinary responsibility

The administrative-disciplinary liability is the legal situation that consists

of the complex of related rights and obligations, content of the sanctioning legal

relation, established between the public authority that applies the sanction and the

1 See Mircea N. Costin, Rspunderea juridic în dreptul R.S.R., Dacia, Cluj, 1974, p. 31-32.