Legal and Non-Legal Justifications for ‘Administrative Mediation’ – Remarks on Polish Administrative Praxis

Abstract

In recent years lawmakers were obliged to harmonise the Polish legal system with the so-called ius commune proceduralis. This ongoing process is vital for both sustainable development, market stability and effective dialog amongst the various actors involved in field of public affairs. In the new era of the administrative state, the so-called ‘classic’ model of administrative proceedings became an obstacle for administrative actions. Effective dialog between public authorities and individuals was hard to achieve. The lack of instruments to ensure effective communication between decision-makers and an individual created a crisis of confidence in public administration bodies and intensified the trend of challenging administrative decisions. In order to reverse these negative phenomena, administrative mediation was implemented into the Polish Code of Administrative Procedure. Apart from the benefits related to making the procedure more ‘flexible’, the implementation of ADR methods also brought with it some negative phenomena. Therefore, the authors of this paper have attempted to present justifications for the implementation of mediation into administrative proceedings. Our analysis also includes comments on the prospects of the application of mediation by public administration authorities.