A critical review of the standard concept of administrative act: an analysis of its defining elements

Abstract

The administrative function designates a universe of activities necessary to fulfill the State's purposes. One of the predominant instruments for these effects is the administrative act. Within the framework of a standard doctrinal elaboration, the administrative act is defined as a unilateral declaration of will that produces legal effects. These features generate tensions with a contemporary reading of norms and normative language. This article critically analyzes the set of properties attributed to the administrative act to reformulate those features that seem semantically critical. Based on the methodological presuppositions of conceptual analysis, it is argued that, in a concept of the administrative act, psychological attributes do not adequately capture the directive function of normative language, and generics do not provide sufficient criteria for recognition. Instead, a reconceptualization of the administrative act is proposed based on the common properties that can be derived from the competence rules that regulate its enactment.