• What is the Administrative Act?
• Types of administrative acts
• Elements of the administrative act
• Examples of administrative acts
• Nullity of an administrative act
• Effects of an administrative act
• Administrative fact and administrative act

We explain what an administrative act is, its types, elements and examples. Also, in which cases are they null and what are their effects.

An administrative act imposes the will of a State body.

What is the Administrative Act?

Normally, an administrative act is understood to be any manifestation or declaration of the public powers of a Condition endowed with administrative powers, to impose their will on the rights, freedoms or interests of other public or private subjects that make life in the nation.

In other words, these are legal acts, in which a State body expresses its will in a unilateral, external and concrete way, to decide on a specific matter.

Public powers can be imposed in a specific matter through administrative acts, as long as they take place within the provisions of the legal system, that is, they are given as established by the Constitution. Hence, administrative acts may vary from country to country and from legislation in legislation.

Types of administrative acts

Administrative acts are classified, according to the segmentation carried out by Gabino Fraga, in the following criteria:

• According to its nature. Taking into account the will of the person who performs the administrative act, one can speak of legal acts (if you modify the law or causes an effect on what it regulates) or material or execution acts (if it executes non-legal attributions of the public administration).
• According to the wills that allow it. Taking into account the responsible bodies, we can talk about unilateral acts (if they only concern the institution that emits them), or plurilateral acts (If they express the will of two or more public bodies).
• According to the relationship between the will and the law. Taking into account the way in which it relates to the law, administrative acts can be obligatory or linked (You must comply with what is imposed by law without margin for individual decisions), or they can be discretionary (The affected person is allowed a certain margin of decision).
• According to the area of ​​their actions. Taking into account this criterion we can distinguish between administrative acts internal (regulate the internal functioning of the law in an administration) and external administrative acts (They include the way in which the State orders and controls internal acts).
• According to its purpose. Taking into account the reason why they are carried out, we can talk about preliminary administrative acts (allow or facilitate the actions of the public administration), administrative acts of decision (unilateral declarations of will where the modification of a subjective and specific legal situation is recorded), or administrative acts of execution (Those that oblige the fulfillment of the resolutions taken).
• According to whom it is intended. Taking into account who is responsible for the administrative act, we can distinguish between those of a general nature (when their recipients are not determined) and those of singular character (directed to a specific recipient).

Elements of the administrative act

Every administrative act is made up of a series of elements that distinguish them from others, and which are:

• Subject. The specific body that formulates the declaration of will on behalf of the State, as long as this is within its powers as established in the Constitution.
• Competence. The amount of can that an entity possesses within the concert of the public powers, and that it empowers it to carry out an administrative act, or not.
• Will. The objective or subjective intention with which the administrative act is carried out.
• Object. That on which the administrative act falls, and that must be physically true and legally possible.
• Reason. The reason for the legal act.
• Merit. The degree of adequacy of the administrative act with respect to the principle of proportionality of the means and the ends.
• Shape. The actualization of the administrative act, that is, the external formation of the act.

Examples of administrative acts

Administrative acts can designate public offices for various employees.

The following may be examples of administrative acts:

• Grant or deny pensions to natural people.
• Appoint employees or applicants to public office.
• Grant concessions for commercialization (import or export).
• Grant licenses or exemptions from taxes.

Nullity of an administrative act

There is talk of nullity in matters of the administrative act when it occurs without sufficient legal guarantees to legitimize it, or when it contradicts what is established in the legal system.

In these cases, a State body can declare its nullity, express or tacit, and can subsequently cancel its effects (non-retroactive nullity) or reverse its effects until the day of its celebration (retroactive nullity). On the other hand, the nullity can be declared totally or partially, depending on the original defect to which your existence has given rise.

Effects of an administrative act

The specific effects of administrative acts depend in principle on what is established in the legal order and on what the act itself contemplates.

Thus, administrative acts produce legal effects, which can range from granting or revoking rights, to reversing decisions of other bodies, demanding compliance with a conduct, etc. These effects are usually immediate and the State will be in charge of ensuring compliance.

Administrative fact and administrative act

The differences between an administrative fact and an administrative act are not always obvious. In principle, an administrative act is a declaration of the will of the public administration. They create and extinguish rights, modify the legal order in the matter, and produce legal effects. For example, awarding a tender to a business private to build a bridge.

On the contrary, an administrative fact is a legal fact that takes place without the will of the management, although they do produce legal effects with respect to it. A legal event is, as is known, something that occurs but has an impact on the legal reality of its competence.

Legal events take place outside of the administration, although they also have legal consequences. For example, the actual construction of the bridge scheduled by the company.

References:

• "Administrative act" in Wikipedia.
• "Administrative act" in LAWi, Online Legal Encyclopedia (Argentina).
• "Administrative act" in Legal Encyclopedia.
• "Act and administrative procedure" by Fernández Ruiz, Jorge, in the Legal Archives of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
• Administrative Acts at Encyclopedia.com.
• Administrative Law in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.