The master's thesis discusses collegial adjudication in administrative disputes, which has a long tradition in our legal system. The recent amendment to the Administrative Disputes Act brought about significant changes in this area, with adjudication by a single judge being established as the fundamental rule. For the first time in the history of independent Slovenia, a single judge generally decides at the Administrative Court, although the amendment still preserves the possibility of collegiate adjudication in more complex cases. Under the current legal framework, adjudication by a single judge is also becoming more prevalent before the Supreme Court.
This change was primarily introduced to enhance the efficiency of administrative justice and thereby reduce the timeframes for decision-making in individual cases. The master's thesis also addresses several other factors that contributed to such a change and in subsequent chapters, it also discusses the impact of the adjudication format on various aspects of effective judicial protection in administrative disputes. Collegiate adjudication is associated with higher-quality and more just decisions and is believed to contribute to the independence, impartiality, and uniformity of judicial practice.
The shift towards single-judge adjudication has been recognized in the past as a suitable measure for optimizing the use of personnel resources in courts by some bodies, such as the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice. Therefore, it is not surprising that the trend of gradually moving towards this form of adjudication in administrative disputes can also be observed in other European countries.
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