The Role of Quasi-Courts in Controlling the Legality of Public Administration: Prerequisites for Systematisation of Pre-Trial Tax Dispute Resolution in Lithuania

Abstract

In many countries today, the practice of establishment, a kind of hybrid of the judiciary and public administration, and the so-called quasi-courts - various commissions, tribunals, etc., have recently become common practice of administrative justice functions implementation not only in courts, but also in quasi-courts. Proceedings in such institutions are commonly referred to as quasi-judicial; as the administration of administrative justice in quasi-courts follows, a procedure similar to those in administrative courts and ensuring of the basic principles of judicial proceedings, e.g. the principle of legality, the principle of the right to be heard, and so on. The aim of the authors' research is to reveal the preconditions for the systematization of quasi-judicial control of the legality of the activities of public administration entities and the settlement of tax disputes in Lithuania. To achieve the goal, the following tasks were singled out: 1) to present the concept of quasi-court and to reveal the essential characteristics of quasi-court; 2) to disclose the essence of the control of the legality of the subjects of public administration and the possibility of quasi-courts to exercise the control of the legality of the administration; 3) to present a case study: the problems of the status and legal regulation of the Tax Dispute Commission of Lithuania. The main results of the research: the concept and characteristics of quasi-judicial institutions were clarified and the advantages of such institutions and directions of improvement were identified.