PGA2017_1_06_Review_Sigmundova.indd


© 2017 Dialóg Campus, Budapest 

Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review  Vol. 2. No. 1. (2017) • 6, 56–58

Book Reviews

Means of Protection of Individual Rights in Public 
Administration – System and Efficiency1

Eva Sigmundová*

* Mgr. Eva Sigmundová, PhD student, Department of Administrative Studies and Administrative
Law, Faculty of Law, Masaryk University. (e-mail: 392849@mail.muni.cz)

The monograph Means of Protection of Individual Rights in Public Administration – System 
and Efficiency is the  result of a  scientific project lasting for multiple years (2013–2016), 
managed by members of the Department of Administrative Studies and Administrative Law 
of the Faculty of Law, Masaryk University, Brno.

A much larger group of authors, comprising of almost thirty experts participated on this 
project. Apart from co-authors from the Czech Republic, also a large number of experts from 
the Slovak republic, Republic of Poland, representatives of Austria and Slovenia contributed 
to the  realization of the  book. Authors came from academic communities and application 
practice, including constitutional and administrative judiciary. Despite the  large number of 
authors, the book is connected by linking articles which discuss the issue of the protection of 
individual rights in the area of administrative law and public administration.

It is a comprehensive work which will be certainly utilized by students of law as well as 
students from other fields of public administration studies. However, this is not a  typical 
textbook, as the legal theory, as well as legal practice itself is very appropriately incorporated 
into individual chapters in which the  authors express their own attitudes and views on 
the  issue. It offers a  clear and simple overview of all the  basic institutes that in the  Czech 
Republic could be used to protect individual rights within public administration, in an 
understandable way to nonprofessionals; the book is divided into three major parts.

The first part briefly, but in principle, deals with the  role and activities of public 
administration, the  issues of (subjective) rights, their protection but also the  possibility of 
abusing these rights. The  question whether the  primary purpose of public administration is 
the protection of personal rights is being asked in this section. The authors answer the question 
negatively; nevertheless, they acknowledge that public administration provides protection of 
rights even so, all the more. The very content of the book is evidence that even in the field of 
public administration which is primarily not dedicated to protect rights, but to 
the administrate public affairs in the public interest, a relatively wide variety of resources can 
be found which could be considered as an instrument for the protection of rights. Based on 
this, the  authors investigate answers for another question, i.e. whether the  individual means 
of protection of rights form a  coherent system and subsequently what is the  actual 
effectiveness of these means of protection of rights. As a  result, the  book represents an 
imaginary mirror and feedback as it attempts to confront factual reality with legal status.

10.53116/pgaflr.2017.1.6

https://doi.org/10.53116/pgaflr.2017.1.6


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Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review • 1. 2017

Means of Protection of Individual Rights in Public Administration – System and Efficiency

The second part of the  book represents its main part (pp. 41–366). The  individual 
chapters focus on the  general means of protecting individual rights that can be found in 
the  exercise of administrative activity. The  authors perceive the  issue in the  necessary 
European context, such as the  actions of the  Council of Europe and the  European Union, 
including a  model proposal for the  European Union’s Administrative Code. Following 
general institutes which can be considered as a means of the protection of individual rights in 
public administration, where the  authors include the  principles of good governance, 
the  principles governing the  performance of the  administrative activity, or the  work of 
the  ombudsman, the  following particular means for the  protection of individual rights. In 
this regard the  book is written mostly with respect to the  factual figure and regulation of 
the Czech Republic. Among the specific means of protection of individual rights, which are 
subject to closer analysis, the  authors present the  procedural rights of the  participants in 
administrative procedures, requirements for proper reasons for the decision, issues of ordinary 
and extraordinary remedies. Attention is paid to whether and how the  protection of 
individual rights in other procedural processes is ensured, such as the  conclusion of public 
contracts, the  implementation of factual acts, the  issuing of legislation by the  public 
administration, the  issuing of binding documents for the  decision of the  administrative 
authority, or the  issue of measures of a  general nature, which is a  rather specific form of 
administrative activity, notably inspired by the  German institute Allgemeineverfügung. In 
addition, the  authors are also focusing on the  selected areas of public administration where 
they are interested in whether and how individual rights are protected. For example, the area 
of self-government, immigration and asylum agendas, administrative penalties, or public 
services in state administration and security services.

The last part of the book is focused on the protection of individual (subjective) rights, in 
spite of the views of the authorities, Ombudsmen, administrative and constitutional judiciary, 
including the relatively provocative issues of the so-called ADR means that is also represented 
in this section.

Thus, the book goes from the general bases to individual institutes. Due to the systematic 
construction of the individual chapters it is not necessary to read the book chronologically, so 
the reader can focus only on the part that interests him/her. It is worth pointing out another 
advantage of this work, namely its practicality and connection with the  reality of the  legal 
world: an appropriate combination of theory, philosophy of law, practice, the  opinion of 
experts from the  field, as well as an outline of the  issues and shortcomings brought by 
the  currently established procedures. Therefore, we can look at issues from different angles 
which will give us a coherent picture of individual themes and allow readers to think and read 
their own attitude towards the subject.

The book is an interesting reflection of whether and how attention is paid in the Czech 
Republic to the protection of individual rights when the law provides a fairly wide range of 
instruments that can be used for this purpose. It focuses not only on the  description of 
the  legislation and legal status but attempts to take into account the  actual functioning 
which is supplemented in some parts with specific statistical data and their evaluation. 
The  essential contribution of this monograph lies in its practical functioning, in which it 
provides interesting and informative issues by presenting a  variety of authors and opinions 
to the reader.



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Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review • Vol. 2. No. 1. 

Eva Sigmundová 

References

1.  Soňa Skulová & Lukáš Potěšil (eds.), Means of Protection of Individual Rights in Public Administration – 
System and Efficiency, 464 pages. (Praha, C. H. Beck, 2017).