Glossary of legal terms

Administrative act which states factual and legal elements that ground the decision in an appropriate manner by disclosing in a clear and unequivocal fashion the reasoning followed by the public authority which adopted the decision in such a way as to enable the parties to ascertain the reasons for the decision and to enable the competent court to exercise its powers of review.

Evidence led by a party to counter a defence adduced by the other party.

Action which enables the Administrative Courts (of first instance or the courts of appeal) not only to control the errors of law and conclude to its annulment, but also to control the facts of the case and reform the act (in some legal systems, full jurisdiction is provided for all types of litigation).

Rectification of a manifest material and arithmetic errors, by the court or at the request of a party.

Judicial decision of the Superior court to refer the case back to the previous judge at first instance where an appeal against that judge’s decision has been wholly or partially successful in case of mistrial.

Court official tasked with organising the court’s diary and drawing up the court’s orders and judgments.

Court hearing where the persons involved are not in the same room and participate via video-conference or on some on-line digital platform.

Declaration of the claimant to renounce to the claim, which has to be declared extinguished.

Power of administrative authority to repeal its (lawful) decision, which means that the legal consequences which have resulted from administrative act, are not nullified, however no further legal consequences may result from such act (ex nunc).

Extraordinary remedy enabling the reopening of the proceedings against final judgments delivered by administrative courts in serious cases established by the law such as, for example, if the judgment is the result of the fraud of one of the parties to damage the other; if the judgment was determined on the basis of evidence subsequently declared false; if new facts or essential evidence for the resolution of the case are discovered that were not available to the parties.

Official charged by the public authority with managing the administrative procedure.

Right granted to the parties to express their views (in writing or orally) to the public authority before a decision which would affect them adversely is taken.

Right of every person to express his or her reasons in the judicial procedure before any individual measure which would affect him or her adversely is taken.

Knowledge and experience that every citizen in society has and that can be used by the judge to arrive at a (judicial) presumption on the basis of certain facts that are pleaded before it. In that case, the opposing party does have the possibility of rebutting the presumption. In common law countries this is known as the doctrine of judicial notice.