The availability of the administration to accepting invitation for conciliation under the terms of article 87.º-c of the CPTA

Abstract

This article aims at characterizing the figure of judicial conciliation, introduced by the terms of article 87.º-C in the Code of Procedure in Administrative Courts (CPTA) and the revision thereafter by the Decree-Law no. 214-G/2015. Although administrative conciliation was already permissible, by means of the direct application of the declarative process of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC), to all cases processed in the form of the common administrative action, the replacement, in 2015, of the dual model with a single form of action, in the context of European influence, for the adoption by states of alternative means of dispute settlement, can be understood as the justification for the import of this figure, which previously did not exist in the CPTA. 

It is a figure on which the legislator´s revision of the CPTA did not outline any statement or position in the preamble. It appears in the diploma as an amendment to the regime of the hearers and the sanctioners. It cannot be ignored that this should be considered a complied requisite of the Administration´s availability for conciliation, as a legally required requirement.

In order to do so, we shall try to understand the scope of the introduction of this figure in the CPTA, distinguishing it and comparing it with the legal regimes of mediation and arbitration, since they are also means of alternative dispute resolution which, although conducted using extrajudicial means, have already raised doctrinal divergences. Some have since, been superseded, such as the need for management to make a confession, withdrawal, transaction and all other similar means to be conducted before conciliation. Taking into account the scope of conciliatory matters, after the amendments made to the CPTA, we will try to understand the extent of the representatives of the State and Administration capacity to respond to the invitation for judicial conciliation, based on the requirements established by article 87-C of the CPTA.