Administrative Law

SYNOPSIS

A. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION 12.101

B. THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT 12.105

C. ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS 12.108

D. ADMINISTRATIVE COURTS 12.109



A. POLITICAL ORGANIZATION

12.101 Argentina is a federal republic divided into self governed provinces, each having its own constitution which must be in accordance with the nation´s Constitution.

12.102 The provinces have delegated certain powers in the federal or central government basically concerning nationwide administration, lawgiving and federal courts of justice, retaining locally all other government matters and proceedings not expressly assigned to the nation.

12.103 The provinces have thus retained the right to pass their own administrative law, whereby ruling relationships between the provincial governments and their inhabitants in all matters of local interest, whereas central administrative law is applied on a nationwide scale concerning the central government´s activities and providing for such same matters when they exceed local authority or incumbencies.

12.104 In general terms the provinces have mainly enacted the same law principles as those followed by the national administrative law system.

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B. THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF GOVERNMENT

12.105 The Executive Branch of government is vested solely in the person of the President of the Argentine Republic.

12.106 Seconding the President, the different government offices are in charge of administrative duties to do with public service.performance. Each cabinet minister and the chief minister, in their turn seconded by secretaries of state and lower levels, is responsible for matters falling into his specific department or government area.

12.107 In addition to the government offices or departments directly ascribed or dependent from a ministry, certain other organizations, mostly independent or decentralized government agencies, can be in charge of specific government matters, as is the case of government agencies in charge of public utilities regulation

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C. ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDINGS

12.108 Administrative proceedings to be followed when basically dealing with the different government offices must adjust to applicable rules and procedures, which are essentially contained in the National Law of Administrative Procedures Nº 19.549, whereby are established the requirements and formalities of government acts and the ways and means of contesting such acts of government by the interested or affected parties, or of petitioning the authorities or of claiming liability for damages.

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D. ADMINISTRATIVE COURTS

12.109 Certain government offices known as "administrative courts" and other government agencies are empowered to give rulings, mainly of a technical or otherwise special nature, as in tax matters and some public utility service issues arising between the utilities and the customers or suppliers.

12.110 Rulings b y government offices on specific matters such as described above have been found to be valid and enforceable by the national supreme court inasmuch as the acting government offices have been specially endowed with the required jurisdictional functions by a law of congress and that the applicable proceedings allow for such decision making of a jurisdictional nature to be appealed before a court of justice, for which purpose there exist specifically competent magistrates and higher judicial federal courts to deal in such matters as well as in other contentious issues concerning government acts and proceedings.

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