The lack of legitimacy of the Autonomous Administration to urge the ex officio review of local administrative acts

Abstract

Actos administrativos inválidosThe Spanish legal order has granted the State’s and the Autonomous Communities’ Administrations the power to bring an action before the Courts against any administrative act adopted by Local Governments (art. 65 LRBRL). However this action must be filed within short deadlines. This is why some Autonomous Communities had tried to force Local Governments to open ex officio reviews against their own administrative acts, given that this kind of review can be undertaken at any time (art. 106.1 LPAC). These attempts had caused a legal controversy about which are the requirements that must be met by the Autonomous Communities to make their requests compulsory for the Local Governments. After a long debate, the Spanish Supreme Court has ruled out that Local Governments are bound to initiate an ex officio review if, and only if, the Autonomous Communities show a legitimate interest.