Maladministration and life beyond legality: The European Ombudsman's paradigm

Abstract

The ambition of this article is to illustrate the attractions of thinking beyond legality and the ability of the concept of maladministration to modify established administrative dogma when utilised in a creative and persistent manner as the benchmark against which the legality and propriety of bureaucratic conduct is assessed. To achieve that objective the analysis focuses on the supranational legal order of the European Union and its Ombudsman. Within that context, the transformative force of maladministration is explored in two distinct areas of interest. One the one hand, the transparency of the European Union recruitment competitions has been considerably improved through the introduction of a number of non-justiciable norms that the European Union administration is expected to honour. On the other hand, citizens’ involvement in the infringement proceedings under Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union has noticeably increased thanks to an array of soft law commitments on the part of the European Commission. The theme that runs through the analysis is the importance of maladministration when operating beyond the shadow of legality.