Effective Legal Protection against the Excessive Length of Administrative Decision-Making: The Cases of Slovenia and Croatia

In administrative matters, the parties usually have a right of access to the court and to a fair trial within a reasonable time limit, as defined by constitutions, only after the exhaustion of appeals. Judicial review is performed in a majority of states by a specialised administrative court in accordance with Articles 6 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Based on a comparative research analysis of supranational and national normative law and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case law, this paper provides insight into the extent to which administrative matters can be reviewed in administrative disputes as well as into the legal remedies available to the parties, especially when the authorities violate time limits, focusing on the compliance of the regulation in Slovenia and Croatia with the ECHR standards. The paper also illustrates a comparative perspective of regulation in other European countries, namely Austria and Estonia. Our findings show the importance of the awareness of the necessary interplay between acts on administrative procedure and acts on administrative disputes for an effective realisation of the parties’ rights and the public interest, with administrative justice ensuring a safety net by guaranteeing an effective legal remedy.