WG Programme Coordinators:
Polonca Kovač, Faculty of Administration, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia,
Anamarija Musa, Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Place: 29th NISPAcee Annual Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Date: October 21-23, 2021
Main theme of the conference: "Citizens' Engagement and Empowerment - The Era of Collaborative Innovation in Governance"
16 papers were presented in the frame of 4 working group sessions:
The WG9 on the Rule of Law and Public Administration was carried out in 2021 in the Ljubljana conference as the newest working group approved by NISPAcee after the successful launch of the panel on the same subject in 2019.
The WG was planned first of all for the Split conference in 2020, but since this conference was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the applied and accepted papers were transferred to the Ljubljana conference based on the additional calls in November 2020 and July 2021. WG9 has received altogether over 25 applications, some later withdrawn; however, 18 were accepted in August 2021 taking into account their relevance on the topics and the level of quality to be prepared as the full papers and to be presented at the October conference.
Finally, 16 papers were presented according to the programme, i.e. with three physical and one online session. The papers tackled topics on better regulation, accountability and participation in public governance, public interest and the right to be heard in law-making, administrative and judicial procedures, autonomy of agencies and the relationship between the EU and national law as well as the role of judiciary versus the executive, and various mechanisms of enhancing legal certainty and effectiveness in taxation and public procurement. In sum, we discussed papers covering a broad range of themes, many dedicated to the Covid-19 crisis and its peculiarities regarding RoL.
Finally, 16 papers were presented according to the programme, i.e. with three physical and one online session. The papers tackled topics on better regulation, accountability and participation in public governance, public interest and the right to be heard in law-making, administrative and judicial procedures, autonomy of agencies and the relationship between the EU and national law as well as the role of judiciary versus the executive, and various mechanisms of enhancing legal certainty and effectiveness in taxation and public procurement. In sum, we discussed papers covering a broad range of themes, many dedicated to the Covid-19 crisis and its peculiarities regarding RoL.
The methodological basis of the papers included mainly qualitative research methods. Regarding the authors’ affiliation, all presenters came from academia, some as PhD students, whilst acting as lawyers, political scientists and economists.
Regarding the country of origin, papers were delivered by authors from Hungary (4), Slovenia and Croatia (3 per country, with an additional one from both countries), Poland (2), Czech Republic (1), Romania (1) and Slovakia (1). Such a variety is regarded as a most welcome result and a significant base to continue the work in the coming years.