Different Remedies in the Judicial Review of Administrative Decisions: the Introduction of the azione di adempimento in Italy (From a Comparative Perspective)

This paper aims to analyze the tendency towards convergence among the different European systems of administrative justice, particularly regarding the effectiveness of the judgments handed down by administrative courts. According to the author, this tendency will play an ever more significant role in comparative studies, as can be demonstrated by analyzing the Italian „codification‟ of 2010-2012. Despite the fact that the Italian system of judicial review already had a specific procedure ensuring that an annulment decision could be properly enforced (giudizio di ottemperanza), the 2010-2012 reforms introduced a new action to obtain the adoption of an act unlawfully denied by a public authority, i.e., the azione di adempimento, akin to the German Verpflichtungsklage. Such a new remedy, together with the fact that in applying it administrative courts have referred to the same principles as found in German law, must be considered not just a general consequence of the aforesaid tendency towards convergence, but the more mature product of a comparative approach applied in procedural law.