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  5. European standards of the administrative sanctions’ application

Almanac of law. Issue 17 (2026), pages 239–246.

DOI: 10.33663/2524-017X-2026-17-239-246

Banchuk O. A.
European standards of the administrative sanctions’ application

In the publication the author studies european standards administrative sanctions’ application, which establish (reflected) in the practice of the European court of human rights, “soft law” acts of the Council of Europe (conclusions, recommendations, resolutions) and legal doctrine. The main acts of the Council of Europe include Resolution (77) 31 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the protection of the individual in relation to the acts of administrative authorities from 1977, Recommendation № R (80) 2 concerning the exercise of discretionary powers by administrative authorities from 1980, Recommendation № R (91) 1 on administrative sanctions from 1991, the explanatory memorandum to this documents and the Rule of Law Checklist, adopted by the Venice Commission in 2025.

The legal doctrine formed recommendations on the legal and practical problems of distinguishing between penal and administrative penal law at the XIV International Congress on penal law in 1989, organized by L’Association Internationale de Droit Pénal, which is a public association of scientists from different countries and has consultative status to the Council of Europe and the UN. The recommendations of the International Association consist of three main parts: requirements for administrative penal law, principles of substantive administrative penal law, and principles of procedural administrative penal law.

The relevance of the study is due to the urgent need to reform the legislation on administrative offenses in the process of Ukraine’s european integration.

The list of basic standards (principles) includes: legality, prohibition of retroactive effect in time of the law, prohibition of double punishment for the same act, reasonable time of sanction’s application, the obligation of the authority to complete the procedure by adopting a final decision, guaranty the person’s right to defense (awareness of the sanction’s application, awareness of the nature of the evidence, have enough time to prepare the defense, the opportunity to express the position, receive a justified decision), the obligation of the administrative authority to bear the burden of proof, the possibility of appealing and reviewing by a court the decision to impose an administrative sanction.

It is proposed in the process of the national administrative delict law’s reform to include this list of standards (principles) in the new Code on administrative offenses and to provide for procedures for the application of administrative sanctions that fully comply with the specified standards.

Keywords: european standards, administrative penalty, “soft law”, Council of Europe, legal doctrine, legality, reasonable time, justification.

 References

  1. Recommandation № R (91) 1 du Comité des Ministres du Conseil de l’Europe aux etats membres relative aux sanctions administratives. 13.02.1991. URL: https://rm.coe.int/16804fce52
  2. Rule of Law Checklist, adopted by the Venice Commission. 16.12.2025. CDL-AD(2025)002. URL: https://venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-AD(2025)002-e
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  4. The Pan-European General Principles on Administrative Sanctions. URL: https://www.reneual.eu/projects-and-publications/reneual-2-0?view=article&id=25&catid=2

Дата першого надходження рукопису до видання: 27.02.2026
Дата прийнятого до друку рукопису після рецензування: 09.04.2026
Дата публікації: 30.04.2026

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