General Principles and Challenges of Public Administration Organization in Romania

This study attempted to proceed from the foundations, exhaustively treating the topic of administrative law, and following the imposed thread of country presentations. It addressed several aspects from both theoretical and practical perspectives, primarily considering the case law of the Constitutional Court. Opinions expressed in Romanian doctrine – both post-war and post 1990 – and foreign doctrine were considered and viewpoints, suggestions and de lege ferenda proposals were expressed. Regarding Romania, it may be stated that bringing administrative law in step with the times is the merit of the doctrine as well as an intense codification activity in this field of law. Romania’s first Administrative Code was adopted in 2019, a unique legislative act in Europe where codes for administrative procedures exist. The Administrative Code establishes a comprehensive approach to Romania’s administrative territorial organization and to the organization and functioning of the authorities of local public administration, seeking to clarify the roles, powers, and competences at each administrative territorial level by complying with the principles of decentralisation, subsidiarity, and local autonomy. Citing the works of Neil Armstrong, the head of the NASA Apollo 11 mission in 1969: ‘one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’, the study asserts that it is perhaps a small step for the beginning, however a giant leap towards a more qualitative form of public administration in Romania.

KEYWORDS Administrative Code, constitutional order, public administration, general principles, administrative territorial unit, administrative reform