The Impact of Covid 19 Pandemic on the Review of Lawsuits at the Administrative Court of the Republic of North Macedonia

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of Covid 19 Pandemic on the general administrative judicial activity in the Republic of North Macedonia. Considering that Covid 19 as a global pandemic of global proportions is negatively affecting all spheres of life as well as all the most important state functions and activities, we also consider that this situation is affecting the judicial system of the Republic of North Macedonia. Considering that a large number of judges are out of their workplaces and this situation slows down and complicates the procedure for reviewing court disputes, the decision on the violated rights and interests of citizens remains hostage to a global pandemic.

In order to analyze the impact of Covid 19 pandemic on the functioning of the judicial system and in particular on the functioning of the Administrative Court in establishing administrative disputes based on lawsuits, we have compared the time periods of the Administrative Court before the pandemic and how many of cases which have been decided on the basis of lawsuits (approved, rejected or dismissed lawsuits) in the last 6 months of 2019, and at the time of the pandemic also how the work of this court has functioned during this pandemic in the total number of lawsuits initiated with the total number of cases on which it has been decided or which have been considered by the judges for the period of time from January to April 2020, the time of pandemic.

The data used in this paper is taken from the reports published on the portal of the Administrative Court of the Republic of North Macedonia.

Key words: Covid-19 pandemic, lawsuits, Administrative Court, Republic of North Macedonia.

DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/101-21

Publication date:September 30th 2020