Special Administrative Courts in Chile

Abstract

The Special Administrative Courts, created for the judicial review of administrative acts that are sector-specific, arise from the lack of general administrative courts. Their creation has been demanded in response to the increasingly specific, complex and intense regulation of the administrative apparatus. In these instances, the discussion about the limits of the judicial review is revisited in the conflicting positions of the doctrine of the red light and the green light of administrative law, on the one hand, and the challenge to the separation of powers, on the other hand. This debate frames, for instance, the large consensus behind the creation of Environmental Courts and the challenge of their nature by the Supreme Court. The special administrative courts appear today as an eclectic solution, that does not systematically address the problem of judicial review of administrative acts. This is due in particular to the lack of participation of users, consumers and communities in the discussion.