Legal forms of the public administration activity – between the stability and the need for a breakthrough

Abstract

The legal forms of the public administration activity, which are in fact a product of the doctrine, ‘close up’ so to speak the whole construction of these activities in a democratic rule of law. What is more, they increase the predictability of the actions that may be taken by administrative bodies, and provide the citizens and other addressees of these activities with a better chance of their evaluation. Consequently public administration can be perceived as functioning properly, displaying stability and certainty. The current dilemmas arising from the need for a broader ‘catalogue’ of legal forms of administrative activity, extended to new ones such as, for example, the administrative agreement, have been presented. In the light of the above it becomes clear that Poland lags behind when confronted with the challenges arising from the evolution of the contemporary tasks of public administration. The tensions between the stabilisation and the postulate of a breakthrough arising in connection with the need for the modernisation of administration and reducing the load of the administrative judiciary is also discussed.