THEORETICAL AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES OF UNDERSTANDING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE

Abstract

The article examines the effectiveness of administrative justice as an independent legal category and determines its place within the general theoretical concept of legal effectiveness. The evolution of scholarly approaches to the effectiveness of legal norms is analysed, ranging from the classical goal-oriented concept based on the relationship between the purpose of legal regulation and the achieved outcome to contemporary comprehensive approaches encompassing the quality of legal regulation, proportionality of costs, social utility of outcomes, and the protection of human rights. Particular attention is paid to the influence of Ukraine’s constitutional transformation and the establishment of a human- centred legal system on the reconsideration of legal effectiveness criteria. It is substantiated that the direct application of the category of effectiveness of legal norms to administrative proceedings is methodologically insufficient, since the object of evaluation in the field of judicial proceedings is not a regulatory prescription, but the result of the implementation of judicial protection of a specific subjective public law. It is argued that the effectiveness of administrative justice should be assessed not only by the legality and reasoning of judicial decisions but primarily by the extent to which the violated legal position of an individual has been effectively restored and his or her rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests have been genuinely protected. The article critically analyses the principal theoretical concepts of legal effectiveness and evaluates their applicability to administrative justice. It demonstrates that assessing judicial effectiveness requires establishing a causal relationship between judicial activity and the achieved legal outcome while also taking into account the proportionality between the legal effect obtained and the temporal, organisational, and material resources expended. The author concludes that the effectiveness of administrative justice constitutes a complex legal category reflecting the ability of administrative courts to ensure timely, comprehensive, and genuine restoration of violated subjective public rights through fair and effective judicial protection.