The Pan-European General Principles of Good Administration in Lithuania

Abstract

This chapter discusses the impact of the pan-European general principles of good administration in Lithuania. It shows that there is a general openness to incorporating these principles into the Lithuanian legal system, albeit not without limitations. This can be attributed to three major factors—legitimacy, a favourable legal framework and agency given to these principles by the domestic actors. Especially, administrative courts seem to be progressively facilitating their application. Yet, while in certain domains the said principles have permeated the Lithuanian legal system to a remarkable extent, in others their use seems to be somewhat underutilized, be it because of domestic regulatory sufficiency, EU influence or unwillingness to make use of these principles by adopting ‘softer’ legal instruments such as codes of conduct or administrative self-commitments.