Streamlining judicial review of administrative decisions. a comparative Institutional approach

The article deals with judicial review of administrative action, seen from a comparative perspective. From this point of view, in the first part of the paper some relevant convergences and divergences among different legal systems will be stressed, with particular attention paid to the standards and to the intensity of judicial control. In the second part of the paper, attention will be given to the problem of unpredictability and uncertainty in judicial review of administrative decisions and to the risks and findings of these tendencies for the relationship between administrations and citizens. Finally, some possible solutions will be considered in order to streamline judicial review of administrative decisions, paying particular attention to the relevant features of the first instance procedure where administrative action takes place, as well as to the relevant features of Courts involved in the following judicial control. Indeed, only a clearer placement of judicial review within a “comparative institutional approach” may ensure a better balance between the need to protect individual rights and to control administrative powers, on the one hand, and the need to ensure a deeper predictability and certainty of Courts, on the other.