| The failure of administrative agencies to fulfill their statutory duties is one of the prerequisites for procuratorial organs to initiate administrative public interest litigation.The determination of ’failure to fulfill legal responsibilities’ is also a key aspect of court review.However,there are still some issues regarding the determination of the scope of responsibilities of administrative agencies,the calculation of relevant deadlines,the identification of the subject of duty performance obligations,and the review of defense grounds.In judicial practice,due to unclear and imperfect legal provisions,the standards of judgment are inconsistent.This makes administrative public interest litigation unable to fully play its role in promoting the active actions of administrative agencies,which is not conducive to achieving the purpose of administrative public interest litigation.On the basis of specific cases,an attempt was made to summarize the situations of "failure to fulfill legal responsibilities" in administrative public interest litigation.Accurately determining the scope of responsibilities of administrative agencies is one of the prerequisites for hearing relevant cases.Firstly,the sources of statutory responsibilities of administrative agencies should be understood in a broad sense.Secondly,procuratorial suggestions are a means of urging administrative agencies to perform their duties in administrative public interest litigation cases,and do not create new responsibilities and obligations for administrative agencies.Finally,the scope of statutory responsibilities generally does not include the execution of administrative decisions.The performance period of administrative organs shall be calculated from the time when the procuratorial advice reaches the administrative organ.At the same time,the People’s Procuratorate’s filing of administrative public interest litigation is also subject to limitations on the prosecution period.The determination of the subject of duty performance in specific cases should be based on the principle of consistency of power and responsibility and the purpose of protecting public interests.When the legal provisions are not specific,it is necessary to consider whether the law endows administrative organs with corresponding obligations,as well as whether the law endows administrative organs with specific powers and enforcement measures.When the protection of public interests involves multiple administrative entities and there is a cross responsibility,a comprehensive consideration should be made based on the principle of being conducive to protecting public interests.The reasons for defense raised by administrative organs should be carefully examined.If there are indeed natural conditions obstacles and legal procedural limitations,reasonable consideration should be given to the defense grounds.It is necessary to subjectively examine the attitude of administrative agencies towards fulfilling their duties,as well as to examine whether administrative agencies are indeed difficult to overcome obstacles related to fulfilling their duties.If it is indeed due to objective reasons that the administrative agency has failed to fulfill its duties,it is not appropriate to unilaterally determine that the administrative agency has not fulfilled its statutory duties.Considering that the standard of conduct may overlook the effectiveness of public interest protection,while the standard of outcome may overlook the statutory authority,a composite standard should be adopted for the determination of non fulfillment of statutory responsibilities,and comprehensive consideration should be given to factors such as the possibility of administrative agency performance and reasons for defense. |
