Ley 6227 — General Law of Public Administration

1. The rules of this law that regulate the activity of the State shall also apply to the other public entities, in the absence of a special rule for these.

2. The rules that regulate other public entities shall not apply to the State, unless the nature of the situation requires otherwise.

1. Public law shall regulate the organization and activity of public entities, unless expressly provided otherwise.

2. Private law shall regulate the activity of entities that, due to their overall regime and the requirements of their operations, can be considered as common industrial or commercial enterprises.

1.- The application of the fundamental principles of public service (servicio público) to the activity of public entities may not alter their contracts nor violate the rights acquired based on them, except for reasons of urgent necessity.

2.- In this latter case, the public entity determining the change or alteration shall be liable for the damages caused.

1. The hierarchy of sources of the administrative legal system shall follow this order:

a)The Political Constitution; b) International treaties and the norms of the Central American Community; c) Laws and other acts with the force of law; d) Executive Branch decrees that regulate laws, and those of the other Supreme Branches in matters of their competence; e) Other Executive Branch regulations, statutes, and regulations of decentralized entities; and f) Other rules subordinate to regulations, both central and decentralized.

2. Autonomous regulations of the Executive Branch and those of decentralized entities are subordinated among themselves within their respective fields of application.

3. In matters not expressly provided for, regulations shall be subject to the rules and principles that govern administrative acts (actos administrativos).

1. Unwritten rules—such as custom (costumbre), case law (jurisprudencia), and general principles of law (principios generales de derecho)—shall serve to interpret, integrate, and delimit the field of application of the written legal system and shall have the rank of the norm they interpret, integrate, or delimit.

2. When it comes to supplementing the absence, and not the insufficiency, of the provisions regulating a matter, said sources shall have the rank of law.

3. Unwritten rules shall prevail over written rules of a lower degree.

1. The administrative legal system is independent of other branches of law. Only in the event that there is no applicable administrative rule, written or unwritten, shall private law and its principles apply.

2. In the case of integration, due to a gap in the written administrative system, the following shall apply, in order: case law (jurisprudencia), general principles of public law (principios generales del derecho público), custom (costumbre), and private law and its principles.

1. The administrative rule shall be interpreted in the way that best guarantees the realization of the public purpose (fin público) to which it is directed, within the respect due to the rights and interests of the individual.

2. It shall be interpreted and integrated taking into account other related rules and the nature and value of the conduct and facts to which it refers.

1. The Public Administration shall act subject to the legal system and may only perform those acts or provide those public services (servicios públicos) that said system authorizes, according to the hierarchical scale of its sources.

2. An act expressly regulated by a written norm shall be considered authorized, at least as to its motive or content, even if in an imprecise manner.

1. A public service (servicio público) shall be considered authorized when the subject and the purpose of the same have been indicated. In this case, the entity in charge may provide it in accordance with its own regulations on the other aspects of the activity, under the rule of Law.

2. Powers of authority (potestades de imperio) that affect the rights of individuals extraneous to the service relationship may not be created by regulation.

1. The Administration shall be subject, in general, to all written and unwritten rules of the administrative system, and to the supplementary private law thereof, without being able to derogate or disapply them for specific cases.

2. The previous rule shall also apply in relation to regulations, whether these originate from the same authority or from another superior or inferior competent authority.

1.- The general principles of law (principios generales de derecho) may implicitly authorize the acts of the Public Administration necessary for the better development of the special relations created between it and individuals by virtue of ongoing administrative acts or contracts.

2.- The limitations and disciplinary sanctions, in this case, may extend to the temporary suspension of the rights and assets created by the Administration within the special relationship, but not the denial or suppression of these, nor of the individual's own other rights.

3.- The Judge shall exercise legality review (contralor de legalidad) over the acts of the Administration within these types of relationships.

1. Discretion (discrecionalidad) may exist even due to the absence of law in a specific case, but it shall be subject, in every case, to the limits imposed on it by the legal system, expressly or implicitly, to ensure that its exercise is efficient and reasonable.

2. The Judge shall exercise legality review (contralor de legalidad) over the regulated aspects of the discretionary act and over the observance of its limits.

1. In no case may acts be issued that are contrary to univocal rules of science or technique, or to elementary principles of justice, logic, or convenience.

2. The Judge may review the conformity of the discretionary elements of the act with these non-legal rules, as if exercising legality review (contralor de legalidad).

1. The individual shall be empowered, in their relations with the Administration, to do everything that is not prohibited to them.

2. Everything that impedes or disturbs the legitimate exercise of administrative powers or the rights of the individual, as well as what violates public order, morality, or good customs, shall be considered prohibited.

1. The legal regime of constitutional rights shall be reserved to the law, without prejudice to the corresponding executive decrees (reglamentos ejecutivos).

2. Autonomous regulations (reglamentos autónomos) in this matter are prohibited.

On the Organs of the Administration

On the Constitutional Organs

1. The superior constitutional organs of the State Administration shall be: The President of the Republic, the Ministers, the Executive Branch (Poder Ejecutivo), and the Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno).

2.- The Executive Branch (Poder Ejecutivo) is formed by: The President of the Republic and the relevant Minister.

1. The Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno) shall be constituted by the President of the Republic and the Ministers, or, in their case, the Acting Vice-Ministers (Viceministros en ejercicio).

2. The Vice-Presidents and other persons that the President summons in accordance with subsection 5) of Article 147 of the Political Constitution may also attend its sessions, with voice but no vote.

1.- The ministerial portfolios shall be:

a)Presidency; b) Foreign Affairs and Worship; c) Interior and Police; ch) Ministry of Justice and Peace; (Thus amended its denomination by Article 2 of Law No. 8771 of September 14, 2009) d) Public Security; e) Finance; f) Agriculture and Livestock; g) Economy, Industry and Commerce; (Thus reformed this subsection by Article 15 of the Organic Law of the Ministry of Environment and Energy No. 7152 of June 5, 1990) h) Environment and Energy.

(Thus reformed the previous subsection by Article 6 of the Law "Transfer of the Telecommunications Sector from the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications to the Ministry of Science and Technology" No. 9046 of June 25, 2012. Article 11 of the affecting law also modifies the denomination of the Ministry as seen) i) Public Works and Transport; j) Public Education; k) Health; l) Labor and Social Security; m) Culture, Youth and Sports (*); (*) (Note from Sinalevi: According to opinion C-023 of January 31, 2007, from the Attorney General's Office of the Republic, this subsection is partially and tacitly repealed by the Law Creating the Institute of Sport and Recreation (ICODER) and its Legal Regime, No. 7800 of April 30, 1998, regarding "Sports," in this case it should read "Culture and Youth").

n)National Planning and Economic Policy; (Paragraph 1 of this article, referring to the enumeration of ministerial portfolios, was thus reformed by Article 11 of the Law of Restructuring of the Executive Branch, No. 6812 of September 14, 1982) ñ) Ministry of Science, Innovation, Technology and Telecommunications (Thus subsection ñ added by Article 104 of the Law for the Promotion of Scientific and Technological Development and Creation of MICIT (Ministry of Science and Technology), No. 7169 of June 26, 1990.)

(Thus reformed the previous subsection ñ) by Article 25 of the Law for the Creation of the Costa Rican Promoter of Innovation and Research, Law No. 9971 of May 11, 2021) 2. (Subsection 2, which dealt with the creation of ministries without portfolio, was tacitly repealed by Article 11 of the Law of Restructuring of the Executive Branch No. 6812 of September 14, 1982. In this regard, see opinion C-212-92 of December 22, 1992)

The creation, suppression, or modification of the Ministries shall be established by a law different from the budget law, without prejudice to the internal regulatory powers (potestades de reglamentación interna) of the Executive Branch.

1. The President of the Republic and the respective Minister shall exercise the powers that the Political Constitution and the law jointly grant them.

2. Except for what the Political Constitution provides regarding the Executive Branch (Poder Ejecutivo), the Minister shall be the superior hierarchical organ of the respective Ministry, without prejudice to the power of the President of the Republic to assume jurisdiction (avocar el conocimiento), jointly with the former, over any of the matters of its competence.

The President of the Republic shall exercise exclusively the following powers:

a)Those indicated in the Political Constitution; b) Direct and coordinate the tasks of Government and of the central Public Administration in its entirety, and do the same with the decentralized Public Administration; c) Settle, through administrative channels, conflicts between decentralized entities and between these and the Central Administration of the State; (The Constitutional Chamber, through resolution No. 3855-93 of August 12, 1993, ordered that: ". this subsection does not violate the autonomy of decentralized entities, since this is reduced to administrative autonomy, not to governmental autonomy, which is reserved to the law.") d) Resolve disputes of competence (conflictos de competencias) that arise between Ministries; e) Entrust a Vice-President or a Minister with the attention of another Ministry when there is no Vice-Minister in cases of temporary absence or incapacity of the officeholder, or specific matters in case of abstention or recusal; f) Convene, preside over, and adjourn the meetings of the Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno) and direct its deliberations; g) Appoint transient or permanent auxiliary or working committees as deemed necessary; and h) Others indicated by the laws.

1. The powers indicated by the Constitution and the laws shall correspond to the Ministers jointly with the President of the Republic, as well as directing and coordinating the Administration, both central and, where appropriate, decentralized, of the respective sector.

2. It shall also correspond to both to depart from binding opinions (dictámenes vinculantes) for the Executive Branch.

3. It shall correspond to both, additionally, to settle and compromise in arbitration (transar y comprometer en árbitros) the matters of the sector.

4. (This subsection repealed by Article 64 subsection p) of the Expropriations Law, No. 7495 of May 3, 1995)

1. The Minister shall be the superior hierarchical organ of the respective Ministry.

2. It shall correspond exclusively to the Ministers:

a)To direct and coordinate all the services of the Ministry; b) To prepare and submit to the President of the Republic the bills, decrees, agreements, resolutions, orders, and other acts that must be signed jointly regarding issues attributed to their Ministry; c) To forward to the Legislative Assembly, once approved by the President of the Republic, the bills referred to in the previous subsection; d) To exhaust the administrative process (vía administrativa), deciding the pertinent appeals (recursos), except for a law that deconcentrates this power; e) To resolve disputes that arise between officials or bodies of their Ministry; f) To raise conflicts of powers (conflictos de atribuciones) with other Ministries or with decentralized entities.
g)To authorize the expenses of the services of their Ministry, within the amount of the authorized credits, and to request from the Ministry of Finance the processing of the corresponding payments; h) To sign contracts on behalf of the State relating to matters of their Ministry; i) For the governing ministers of the institutions whose budgets are reviewed by the Legislative Assembly to appear, each year during the month of September and on the date they are summoned, before the Permanent Committee on Financial Affairs of this Assembly, to render a report on the budget execution of their institution, corresponding to the current fiscal year. In that same appearance, they must justify the budget bill being analyzed for the following fiscal period. Both interventions must be based on the fulfillment of precise objectives and goals.

(Thus added the previous subsection by Article 1 of Law No. 7646 of November 5, 1996.)

j)The other powers granted to them by the laws.

(The numbering of the previous subsection was moved by Article 1 of Law No. 7646 of November 5, 1996, which transferred it from the previous subsection i) to the current j))

The Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno) shall be responsible for:

a)Exercising the powers expressly granted to it by the Political Constitution; b) Advising the President of the Republic and, when the latter expressly states so, resolving the other matters entrusted to it. In these cases, the President may review ex officio, revoking, modifying, or annulling, what was resolved. There shall be no appeal before the President against what was resolved by the Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno); c) Resolving the appeals for revocation or reconsideration (recursos de revocatoria o reposición) filed against its resolutions in accordance with the law; d) (This subsection repealed by subsection 1) of Article 200 of the Code of Contentious- Administrative Procedure, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006) e) (This subsection repealed by subsection 1) of Article 200 of the Code of Contentious- Administrative Procedure, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006) f) Authorizing the Ministers to depart from the opinions (dictámenes) that have been produced, when otherwise they would have been binding, giving reasons for the authorization.

1. The resolutions of the Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno), not rejected by the President, shall be executed by the latter and the respective Minister.

2. When the Council's resolution falls under the competence of several Ministries, or of none in the judgment of the President, it shall be executed with the Minister of the Presidency.

3. The resolutions of the Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno) on matters of its constitutional competence shall be executory.

1. The President may grant participation to their technical advisors or authorize the Ministers to do the same with theirs in the matters of their sector.

2. Advisors, like any third party invited for consultation purposes, shall have voice but no vote.

1. There shall be a Secretary of the Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno), with the following powers:

a)To prepare and sign the minutes of the Council; b) To process the dispatch of the Council's affairs; c) To direct the administrative procedures (procedimientos administrativos) pending before the Council; d) To assist the President as their Private Secretary in the performance of their duties as President of the Council; and e) To sign, communicate, and execute all acts relating to the dispatch of the Council's affairs, when this does not correspond to the President and the respective Minister.

2. For the performance of their duties, the Secretary shall have the auxiliary personnel indicated by the respective regulation.

1. The Council shall ordinarily meet at least once a week, which the President shall set for each session or generally for all sessions of the year, in which case there shall be no need for a call to meeting each time.

2. It shall meet extraordinarily when convened by the President.

1. It shall be the exclusive power of the President of the Republic to convene the Council, including for the consideration of matters of constitutional competence of the same.

2. The President shall convene by any means adequate for the purpose, according to their sole discretion.

1. The Council shall have a quorum with two-thirds of the totality of its members.

2. On matters that are not of its constitutional competence, the Council may hold a session on second call with half of its members.

1. The Council's sessions shall be secret, unless the President provides otherwise.

2. The agenda shall be prepared exclusively by the President, who shall put the respective items up for discussion in the order they deem convenient.

1. The Council's decisions shall be adopted by a majority of the votes present, with the exceptions that shall be stated.

2. When a Minister has another Ministry additionally charged to them, they shall have only one vote in the Council.

a)Those for the removal of directors of autonomous entities; b) Those corresponding to the powers indicated by subsections 1) and 2) of Article 147 of the Political Constitution, in this latter case when it is necessary to depart from the recommendation of the Supreme Court of Justice; and c) (This subsection repealed by subsection 2) of Article 200 of the Code of Contentious- Administrative Procedure, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006)

1. Voting shall be public, unless the President provides otherwise or unless it concerns the discretionary assessment of qualities or activities of persons, or matters that seriously affect their prestige or assets, in which case it shall be secret.

2. In case of a tie, the President shall have a casting vote (voto de calidad).

3. Abstentions or blank votes shall be counted for quorum purposes and to determine the number of voters, but they cannot be attributed to either the majority or the minority.

1. The minutes shall be signed by the President and by the Secretary and must be read and approved at the following session.

2. Dissenting votes shall be recorded and signed by the President and the Secretary.

3. Without the duly signed and formalized minutes, in accordance with this law, the agreements shall be absolutely null.

1. The members of the Council may file an appeal for review (recurso de revisión) against an agreement, but it shall only be admissible if the President supports it.

2. The appeal must be resolved at the following session and shall have mandatory preference for its processing, except in urgent cases, in which it may be decided immediately.

(Thus reformed by subsection 3) of Article 200 of the Code of Contentious-Administrative Procedure, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006)

1. The decisions of the Council shall be published in the Official Gazette when they are general or correspond to its constitutional competence, or directly notified to the interested party, in other cases.

2. Constitutional acts of individual scope must additionally be notified.

3. The improperly communicated or uncommunicated act does not bind the individual.

1. The Council may internally regulate its functioning within the framework of this law.

2. They may also constitute special working commissions, permanent or temporary, from their own membership or with the participation of other officials.

On the Vice-Ministers

1. The President of the Republic may appoint Vice-Ministers.

2. The Vice-Ministers must meet the same requirements as the Ministers and shall have the powers indicated by this law and the respective Minister.

3. The Vice-Ministers shall substitute the respective Ministers in their temporary absences, when so ordered by the President of the Republic.

4. The Vice-Minister shall be the immediate hierarchical superior of all Ministry personnel, without prejudice to the powers of the Minister in this regard.

5. The Ministry of Finance shall have two Vice-Ministers:

one in charge of the Expenditure Administration Section and another of the Income and Financial Resources Section.

In the absence of the Minister, either of the two Vice-Ministers shall substitute them.

The powers assigned to the Vice-Ministers in this Law shall be exercised by each within their respective areas of action.

(Thus added the previous subsection 5) by Article 1 of Law No. 7444 of November 2, 1994) 6. The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports shall have a Vice-Minister of Youth and those others that the President of the Republic appoints.

(Thus added the previous subsection by Article 31 (current 36) of the General Law of the Young Person, No. 8261 of May 2, 2002) 7.- The Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE)(*) shall have two Vice-Ministers: one in charge of the environment sector and one in charge of the energy sector. In the absence of the Minister, either of the two Vice-Ministers shall substitute them. The powers assigned to the Vice-Ministers in this law shall be exercised by each one, within their respective areas of action.

(Thus added the previous subsection by Article 48 section b) of the Law for the Strengthening and Modernization of Public Entities of the Telecommunications Sector, No. 8660 of August 8, 2008) (Thus reformed the previous subsection 7) by Article 6 of the Law "Transfer of the Telecommunications Sector from the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications to the Ministry of Science and Technology", No. 9046 of June 25, 2012) (*)(Its denomination modified by Article 11 of the Law "Transfer of the Telecommunications sector from the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications to the Ministry of Science and Technology, No. 9046 of June 25, 2012) 8.- The Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications(*) shall have a Vice-Ministry of Telecommunications and those others that are designated in accordance with subsection 1) of the present article.

(Thus added the previous subsection by Article 6 of the Law "Transfer of the Telecommunications Sector from the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications to the Ministry of Science and Technology", No. 9046 of June 25, 2012) (*)(Its denomination modified by Article 11 of the Law "Transfer of the Telecommunications sector from the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Telecommunications to the Ministry of Science and Technology, No. 9046 of June 25, 2012)

It shall correspond to the Vice-Minister:

a)To exercise the powers conferred by their status as a subordinate hierarchical superior; b) To direct and coordinate the internal and external activities of the Ministry, without prejudice to the powers of the Minister in this regard; c) To be the communication center of the Ministry, internally and externally; d) To carry out the studies and gather the documentation necessary for the proper functioning of the Ministry; e) To delegate, assume jurisdiction (avocar), substitute, or subrogate functions within the limits of this law; and f) To request help from all Ministry personnel for the fulfillment of their duties.

On Collegiate Organs

1. Each collegiate organ shall have a President appointed in the manner prescribed by the respective law, or in the absence thereof, by what is provided herein.

2. Unless a rule provides otherwise, the President shall be appointed from among the members of the collegiate organ, by an absolute majority of them, and shall hold office for one year, with the possibility of being re-elected.

3. The President shall have the following powers and duties:

a)To preside, with all powers necessary for this purpose, over the meetings of the organ, which they may suspend at any time for justified cause; b) To ensure that the collegiate organ complies with the laws and regulations relating to its function; c) To set general directives and issue instructions regarding the formal aspects of the organ's work; d) To convene extraordinary sessions; e) To prepare the agenda, taking into account, where applicable, the requests of the other members formulated at least three days in advance; f) To resolve any matter in case of a tie, for which case they shall have a casting vote (voto de calidad); g) To execute the agreements of the organ; and h) Others assigned by laws and regulations.

a)To record the audio and video of the organ's sessions and prepare the corresponding minutes, which shall constitute a literal transcription of all the interventions made in adherence to the constitutional principles of reasonableness and proportionality, thereby guaranteeing publicity and citizen access to all these records.

(Thus reformed the previous subsection by Article 1 of the Law Authorizing the Holding of Virtual Sessions by Collegiate Organs of the Public Administration, No. 10379 of October 2, 2023) b) To communicate the organ's resolutions, when this does not correspond to the president.

c)Others assigned by law c)(*) the regulations.

(*) (Note from Sinalevi: The literal text is transcribed, as it was published in the Official Gazette La Gaceta) (Thus reformed by Article 2 of the Law to Improve the Budgetary Control Process, by Means of Correcting Normative Deficiencies and Practices of the Public Administration, No. 10053 of October 25, 2021)

In case of absence or illness and, in general, when any just cause occurs, the President and the Secretary of the collegiate organs shall be substituted by the Vice-President, or an ad-hoc President and an alternate Secretary, respectively.

1. Every collegial body shall meet ordinarily with the frequency and on the day established by law or its regulations. In the absence of an express rule, it shall meet in ordinary form on the date and with the frequency that the body itself agrees upon.

2. No special call to meeting shall be required to meet in ordinary session.

3. To meet in extraordinary session, a written call to meeting shall always be necessary, with a minimum of twenty-four hours' notice, except in cases of urgency. A copy of the agenda shall accompany the call to meeting, except in cases of urgency.

4. Nevertheless, a collegial body shall be validly constituted without fulfilling all the requirements regarding the call to meeting or the agenda, when all of its members attend and so agree unanimously.

5. Both ordinary and extraordinary sessions of the body may be held virtually, through the use of telematic systems that allow for comprehensive, simultaneous, and uninterrupted communication of video, audio, and data among its members and that guarantee in real time the orality of the deliberation, the identity of the attendees, the authenticity and integrity of the collegial will, the preservation and inalterability of the proceedings, and their recording in mediums that allow for their complete reproduction. In the case of bodies that hold public sessions, publicity must be guaranteed through the use of virtual means, allowing the citizenry to follow the deliberations in real time.

(The preceding paragraph was thus added by Article 2 of Law Authorizing the Holding of Virtual Sessions by Collegial Bodies of the Public Administration, No. 10379 of October 2, 2023) Article fact sheet

1. The quorum for the collegial body to validly convene shall be an absolute majority of its members.

2. If there is no quorum, the body may validly convene on a second call to meeting twenty-four hours after the time set for the first, except in cases of urgency in which it may convene after half an hour, and for this purpose the attendance of one-third of its members shall be sufficient.

3. If the session is held virtually, each of the members present through telematic links shall form a quorum, for which the participants must remain, throughout the entire session, connected with audio and video, regardless of the place from which said connection originates, provided that their connection allows for simultaneous communication in an uninterrupted manner.

(The preceding paragraph was thus added by Article 3 of Law Authorizing the Holding of Virtual Sessions by Collegial Bodies of the Public Administration, No. 10379 of October 2, 2023) Article fact sheet

1. The sessions of the body shall always be private, but the body may arrange, by agreeing so unanimously by its members present, that the general public or certain persons have access to it, granting them or not the right to participate in the deliberations with voice but without vote.

2. The executive representatives of the entity to which the collegial body belongs shall have the right to attend with voice but without vote, unless the body provides otherwise.

3. Decisions shall be adopted by an absolute majority of the members attending.

4. No matter not appearing on the agenda may be the subject of a decision, unless two-thirds of the members of the body are present and the urgency of the matter is declared by the favorable vote of all of them.

Article fact sheet

1. In the event that any of the members of the body files an appeal for review (recurso de revisión) against a decision, it shall be resolved upon approval of the minutes of that session, unless, because it is a matter the President deems urgent, he or she prefers to address it in an extraordinary session.

2. The appeal for review (recurso de revisión) must be raised no later than during the discussion of the minutes, and said appeal must be resolved in the same session.

3. Simple observations of form, relating to the drafting of the decisions, shall not be considered, for the purposes of the preceding paragraph, as appeals for review (recursos de revisión).

Article fact sheet

1)The sessions of collegial bodies shall be recorded in audio and video and backed up on a digital medium that guarantees their integrity and archiving in accordance with current legislation. It shall be the obligation of all members of the collegial body to verify that the recording of the session is carried out, and failure to do so shall constitute a serious fault.
2)Minutes shall be drawn up for each session, which shall contain an indication of the persons attending, as well as the circumstances of place and time in which it was held, a literal transcription of all interventions made in accordance with the constitutional principles of reasonableness and proportionality, the main points of deliberation, the manner and result of the voting, and the content of the decisions.

(The preceding paragraph was thus amended by Article 4 of Law Authorizing the Holding of Virtual Sessions by Collegial Bodies of the Public Administration, No. 10379 of October 2, 2023) 3) The minutes shall be approved at the next ordinary session. Before that approval, the decisions taken at the respective session shall lack finality, unless the members present agree upon their finality by a vote of two-thirds of the total membership of the Body.

4)The minutes shall be signed by the president and by those members who have recorded their dissenting vote.

(Thus amended by Article 2 of the Law to improve the budgetary control process, by correcting regulatory and practical deficiencies of the public administration, No. 10053 of October 25, 2021) Article fact sheet

1. The members of the collegial body may record in the minutes their vote contrary to the decision adopted and the reasons justifying it, thus being exempt from any liabilities that could, where applicable, derive from the decisions.

2. In the case of collegial bodies that must formulate opinions or proposals, the dissenting votes shall be communicated together with them.

Article fact sheet

1. An appeal for revocation (recurso de revocatoria) shall be available against the decisions of the collegial body.

2. An appeal for review before a higher authority (recurso de apelación) shall be available exclusively when other laws so indicate.

Article fact sheet

On Competence

Origin, Limits, and Nature

1. Competence shall be regulated by law whenever it contains the attribution of powers of imperium.

2. The internal distribution of competences, as well as the creation of services without powers of imperium, may be done by autonomous regulation, but it shall be subordinated to any future law on the matter.

3. Relations between bodies may be regulated by autonomous regulation, which shall also be subordinated to any future law.

Article fact sheet

1. Competence shall be limited by reason of territory, time, subject matter, and hierarchical grade.

2. It shall also be limited by the nature of the function corresponding to a body within the procedure in which it participates.

Article fact sheet

1. To determine administrative competence by reason of territory, the respective norms of the Organic Law of the Judicial Branch, in civil matters, shall apply.

2. If they are not compatible, the body that initiated the procedure shall be competent, or the one closest to the place of the facts that are the subject of the administrative action.

3. To determine the other types of competence, the pertinent specific rules shall be observed.

Article fact sheet

1. There shall be a limitation of competence by reason of time when its existence or exercise is subject to conditions or terms of extinction.

2. Competences shall not be extinguished by the lapse of the period specified for exercising them, unless there is a rule to the contrary.

Article fact sheet

1. Every body shall be competent to perform the internal regulatory or material tasks necessary for the efficient dispatch of its affairs.

2. The power to issue certifications shall correspond only to the body that has decision-making functions regarding the matter certified or to its secretary.

Article fact sheet

1. The powers of imperium and their exercise, and public duties and their fulfillment, shall be inalienable, non-transferable, and imprescriptible.

2. Only by law may commitments not to exercise a power of imperium be established. Such a commitment may only be given within a bilateral and onerous act or contract.

3. The exercise of powers in specific cases may be expressly subject to expiration (caducidad), by virtue of other laws.

Article fact sheet

1. Lack of competence may be declared ex officio at any time by the body that issued the act, by the hierarchical superior, or, at the request of a party, by the comptroller authority.

2. The body that is ultimately determined to be competent shall continue the procedure and maintain all proceedings, unless that is not legally possible.

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On Administrative Conflicts

General Provisions

1. Conflicts of competence between bodies of the Executive Branch or of a single entity must be resolved in accordance with Sections II and III of this Chapter, and may not, in any case, be brought before the Courts.

2. With the same limitation as that indicated in the preceding paragraph, other administrative conflicts between bodies of the Executive Branch or of a single entity shall be resolved by the common hierarchical superior of the conflicting bodies, applying in all other respects the provisions of Section IV of this Chapter.

3. Conflicts, including those concerning competence between entities, shall be resolved in accordance with Section IV of this Chapter, through the administrative channel, but each party shall retain its right to the pertinent contentious action.

4. The provisions of Section V of this Chapter are excepted for conflicts with interested parties.

Article fact sheet

The hierarchical superior must oversee the respective procedure to guarantee the speed required to observe said period.

Article fact sheet

On Conflicts of Competence within a Single Ministry

1. The administrative body that considers itself incompetent to resolve a matter shall directly forward the proceedings to the body it considers competent, if it depends on the same Ministry.

2. If the body receiving the file also considers itself incompetent, it shall elevate it to the common hierarchical superior, so that the latter may decide the conflict of competence.

Article fact sheet

Should the case arise, it shall limit itself to explaining to the superior the reasons it has for considering that the hearing of the matter corresponds to it, and the superior shall resolve as appropriate, adding the explanation to its records.

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On Conflicts of Competence between Different Ministries

Article fact sheet

On Conflicts between the State and Other Entities, or among These

(The Constitutional Chamber, by resolution No. 3855-93 of August 12, 1993, held that this article does not violate the autonomy of decentralized entities, since this autonomy is limited to administrative autonomy, not to governmental autonomy, which is reserved to the law.)

Article fact sheet

1. The body wishing to raise a conflict must present it to the corresponding head of the hierarchy, with a statement of evidence and reasons.

2. The head of the hierarchy may freely accept or reject the request within eight days after receiving it, communicating the decision to the inferior.

3. If accepted, the head shall send it to the President of the Republic as promptly as possible, modifying it as desired.

4. The President shall grant a hearing of one month to the other party and shall decide within a maximum period of one month after said hearing, whether the hearing was answered or not.

5. If the taking of evidence is required, the President shall have one additional month for that purpose.

Article fact sheet

On Conflicts of Competence Raised by the Interested Party

Article fact sheet

1. The body required to declare its lack of competence must rule within five days after receipt of the requirement.

2. If it accepts the petition, the procedure shall be in accordance with the provisions of Articles 76, 79, or 82, as the case may be.

3. If it considers itself competent, its decision shall be appealable through the hierarchical channel by the usual procedure.

4. Once the hierarchical channel is exhausted, no contentious action shall lie against the resolution that determines the competence, except in the case of Article 71.3, but once the final decision on the merits is issued, its annulment may be sought for lack of competence of the body that issued it.

5. The failure to decide within the time limit shall be considered a tacit denial of the lack of competence.

Article fact sheet

On the Distribution and Changes of Competence

On Deconcentration

1. Every body other than the head of the hierarchy shall be fully subordinated to the latter and to the immediate hierarchical superior, except in cases of deconcentration effected by law or by regulation.

2. Minimum deconcentration shall occur when the superior cannot:

a)Avoke the competence of the inferior; and b) Review or substitute the conduct of the inferior, ex officio or at the request of a party.

3. Deconcentration shall be maximum when the inferior is also removed from orders, instructions, or circulars of the superior.

4. The impossibility of reviewing or substituting the conduct of the inferior shall presume the power to avoke it, and vice versa.

5. The norms creating minimum deconcentration shall be restrictively applied against the competence of the deconcentrated body, and those creating maximum deconcentration shall be broadly applied in its favor.

Article fact sheet

On Changes of Competence in General

Administrative competences or their exercise may be transferred by means of:

a)Delegation; b) Avocation; c) Substitution of the holder or of an act; d) Subrogation; and e) Temporary replacement (suplencia).

Article fact sheet

1. Any transfer of external competences from one body to another or from one public servant to another must be authorized by an express norm, except in cases of urgency.

2. In all cases, the norm authorizing the transfer must have a rank equal to or higher than that of the norm creating the transferred competence.

3. Transfers may not be made by virtue of practice, usage, or custom.

Article fact sheet

1. Every transfer of competence must be temporary and, except in the case of temporary replacement (suplencia) and substitution of the body, clearly limited in its content by the act that gives rise to it.

2. Every transfer of competence must be reasoned, with the exceptions indicated in this law.

3. Violation of the indicated limits shall cause the invalidity of both the act originating the transfer and those issued in exercise of it.

Article fact sheet

On Delegation

1. Every public servant may delegate their own functions to their immediate inferior, when both hold functions of the same nature.

2. Non-hierarchical delegation or delegation to a different grade shall require another express norm authorizing it, but the compatible rules of this Section shall apply to it.

3. Delegation shall not be possible when the competence was granted to the delegating party by reason of their specific suitability for the position.

4. Delegation must be published in the Official Gazette when it pertains to a type of act and not to a specific act.

Article fact sheet

a)The delegation may be revoked at any time by the body that conferred it; b) Delegated powers may not be further delegated; c) A total delegation may not be made, nor may the essential competences of the body—those that give it its name or justify its existence—be delegated; d) Delegation may only be made between bodies of the same class, by reason of subject matter, territory, and the nature of the function; and e) The collegial body may not delegate its functions, but only the instruction of these, to the Secretary.

Article fact sheet

Fault in the choice shall only arise when such choice was discretionary.

Article fact sheet

On Avocation

1. The superior may, even for reasons of expediency, avoke the decision of matters from the immediate inferior when there is no hierarchical appeal against the inferior's decision, and in such case the superior's resolution shall also exhaust the administrative channel.

2. Avocation shall not create a special subordination between the avoking party and the party from whom the matter is avoked.

3. The party from whom the matter is avoked shall have no supervision over the conduct of the avoking party nor be liable for it.

4. When it refers to a type of business, and not to a specific one, it must be published in the Official Gazette.

5. It shall have the same limits as delegation, where compatible.

6. Non-hierarchical avocation or avocation of competences of a body that is not the immediate inferior shall require another law authorizing it.

Article fact sheet

On Temporary Replacement and Subrogation

1. The temporary or definitive absences of the public servant may be filled by the immediate hierarchical superior or by a temporary replacement (suplente) who is appointed.

2. If the hierarchical superior does not wish to perform the temporary replacement (suplencia) or two months have elapsed since the superior began exercising it, a temporary replacement (suplente) must be appointed in accordance with the law.

3. If the position is covered by the special Civil Service regime, the temporary replacement (suplente) shall be appointed in accordance with it; if it is not, the temporary replacement may be freely appointed.

Article fact sheet

1. The temporary replacement (suplente) shall substitute the holder for all legal purposes, without any subordination, and shall exercise the competences of the body with the fullness of the powers and duties contained therein.

2. Every temporary replacement (suplencia) requires the appointment of the temporary replacement (suplente), with the exception provided for in the preceding article regarding the immediate hierarchical superior.

3. The appointment of the temporary replacement (suplente) shall always be made without prejudice to the power to appoint a new holder, without any liability whatsoever for the Administration.

Article fact sheet

On the Substitution of the Act

1. The superior may substitute for the immediate inferior when the latter omits the conduct necessary for the fulfillment of the duties of their position, despite due notice (intimación) to fulfill them, without proving just cause in this regard.

2. To give such notice (intimación), sending a certified letter to the inferior three days in advance, warning of the possibility of substitution, shall suffice.

3. A well-founded substitution shall be just cause for dismissal of the inferior.

Article fact sheet

On the Substitution of the Holder

1. The Executive Branch, within the corresponding sector, may remove and substitute, without liability for the State, the non-hierarchical inferior, whether individual or collegial, of the State or of any other decentralized entity, that repeatedly disobeys the directives issued to it by the former without providing a satisfactory explanation, despite the notices (intimaciones) received. In the case of directors of autonomous institutions, the removal must be carried out by the Government Council.

2. The substitute public servant or body shall have all the powers and attributions of the ordinary holder, but must use them for what is strictly indispensable to reestablish the harmony of administrative normality, under penalty of incurring nullity.

3. The acts of the substitute, in this case, shall be deemed proper to the entity or body that has been subjected to the substitution, for all legal purposes.

4. The substitution regulated by this article shall create a hierarchical link between the Executive Branch and the substitute, but none between the latter and the substituted party.

5. The substitution must be preceded by at least three notices (intimaciones) urging the inferior to justify its conduct and to comply.

6. The silence of the substituted party shall itself constitute just cause for the substitution.

7. To give such notice (intimación), a certified letter, in the terms indicated in the preceding article, shall suffice.

Article fact sheet

On Inter-body Relations

On the Relationship of Direction

1. There shall be a relationship of direction when two bodies of active administration have different competence by reason of subject matter and one of them may order the activity, but not the acts, of the other, imposing upon it the goals thereof and the types of means to be used to achieve them, within a relationship of trust incompatible with orders, instructions, or circulars.

2. Hierarchy shall imply the power of direction, but not vice versa.

Article fact sheet

1. When a body has the power of direction over another, it may issue directives to it, supervise their compliance, and sanction with removal the holder who repeatedly and seriously fails to observe them, without justifying the non-observance.

2. The directing body shall not, as such, have hierarchical power over the directed body, and the latter shall in all cases have discretion to apply the directives according to the circumstances.

3. The directing body shall also have the power to coordinate the directed body with others, always within the limits indicated above.

Article fact sheet

On the Hierarchical Relationship

On the Hierarchical Relationship Proper

Article fact sheet

a)To give particular orders, instructions, or circulars on the manner in which functions are to be exercised by the inferior, both in aspects of expediency and convenience and of legality, without restrictions other than those expressly established; b) To supervise the action of the inferior to verify its legality and convenience, and to use all necessary or useful means to that end that are not legally prohibited; c) To exercise disciplinary power; d) To adopt the measures necessary to adjust the conduct of the inferior to the law and to good administration, revoking, annulling, or reforming it ex officio, or by virtue of an administrative appeal; e) To delegate its functions and avoke those of the immediate inferior, as well as to substitute for it in cases of culpable inaction, or to subrogate itself to it by temporarily occupying its position while the holder does not return or a new holder is not appointed, all within the limits and conditions indicated by this law; and f) To resolve conflicts of competence or of any other nature that arise between inferior bodies.

Article fact sheet

1. The head of the hierarchy or supreme hierarchical superior shall also have the extrajudicial representation of the Public Administration in its sector and the power to organize it by means of autonomous regulations of organization and service, whether internal or external, provided that, in the latter case, the regulated activity does not involve the use of powers of imperium vis-à-vis the administered party.

2. When alongside the deliberative body there is a manager or executive official, the latter shall have the representation of the entity or service.

3. The head of the hierarchy may also perform all acts and contracts necessary for the efficient dispatch of the affairs of its sector.

Article fact sheet

1. In the absence of a statutory provision, the head of the hierarchy may appoint, discipline, and remove all the public servants of the entity, in accordance with Articles 191 and 192 of the Political Constitution.

2. When there is an articulation between a collegial head of the hierarchy and a unipersonal executive one, the former shall appoint the latter, its temporary replacements (suplentes), and the other senior officials of the entity as indicated by the regulations, and the executive head of the hierarchy shall be responsible for the appointment of the rest of the personnel.

Article fact sheet

1. The power to order and direct the conduct of the inferior by means of orders, instructions, or circulars shall be necessary and sufficient for the existence of the hierarchical relationship, except for express limitations imposed by the legal system.

2. The other powers listed above may exist without hierarchy being present, but their presence shall give rise to a presumption of hierarchy, unless the nature of the situation or the overall regime indicates otherwise.

Article fact sheet

1. Every public servant shall be obliged to obey the particular orders, instructions, or circulars of the superior, subject to the limitations established in this Chapter.

2. The public servant shall not be obliged to obey when the act does not emanate from a hierarchical superior, whether immediate or not.

Article fact sheet

On the Duty of Obedience

1. The public servant must disobey when any of the following circumstances arise:

a)The order has as its object the performance of acts evidently outside the competence of the inferior; and b) The act is manifestly arbitrary, its execution constituting an abuse of authority or any other crime.

2. Obedience in any of these circumstances shall give rise to personal liability of the official, both administrative and civil, without prejudice to any criminal liability that may apply.

Article fact sheet

1. When none of the circumstances listed in the two preceding articles is present, the public servant (servidor) shall obey even if the superior's act is contrary to the legal system for any other reason, but in this latter case, the servant must record and send in writing his objections to the head of the agency (jerarca), who shall be obliged to acknowledge receipt.

2. The sending of written objections shall save the inferior from liability, but the latter shall be subject to immediate execution of what was ordered.

3. When immediate execution could cause serious harm of impossible or difficult reparation, the inferior may suspend it, subject to disciplinary liability and potentially civil or criminal liability if the justifying causes are found to be ultimately nonexistent.

4. The provisions of Article 158 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo shall be preserved.

(Thus amended by subsection 4) of Article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Ley N° 8508 of April 28, 2006) ---

1. In case of urgency, the inferior may save his liability even if he has not been able to send his objections in writing prior to the execution.

2. In these cases, the inferior may make his objections verbally before the immediate superior, but the presence of two witnesses shall be required.

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On Public Servants

On Public Servants in General

1. A public servant (servidor público) is the person who provides services to the Administration or on behalf of and on account of it, as part of its organization, by virtue of a valid and effective investiture act, with complete independence from the imperative, representative, remunerated, permanent, or public nature of the respective activity.

2. For this purpose, the terms "public official (funcionario público)", "public servant (servidor público)", "public employee (empleado público)", "person in charge of a public service (encargado de servicio público)", and other similar terms are considered equivalent, and the regime of their relations shall be the same for all, unless the nature of the situation indicates otherwise.

3. Employees of state economic enterprises or services tasked with activities subject to ordinary law (derecho común) are not considered public servants (servidores públicos).

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1)Administrative law shall be applicable to the service relations between the Administration and its public servants (servidores públicos).
2)Service relations with laborers, workers, and employees who do not participate in the public management of the Administration, in accordance with the third paragraph of Article 111, shall be governed by labor or commercial law, as appropriate.
3)However, the legal or regulatory provisions of public law necessary to guarantee administrative legality and morality shall also apply to the latter, as determined by decree of the Executive Branch (Poder Ejecutivo).
4)For criminal purposes, said servants (servidores) shall be deemed public.
5)All public servant persons (personas servidoras públicas) who do not participate in public administrative management, as determined by Articles 683 and 689 of Ley 2, Código de Trabajo, of August 27, 1943, have the right to negotiate collective labor agreements (convenciones colectivas de trabajo), in accordance with the provisions of Article 62 of the Political Constitution (Constitución Política), both in public enterprises and economic services of the State as well as in the rest of the Public Administration.

(Thus amended by Article 49, sub-subsection f) of the Ley Marco de Empleo Público, N° 10159 of March 8, 2022) (Thus amended by Article 3, section c) of Law N° 9343 of January 25, 2016, "Reforma Procesal Laboral".)

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1. The public servant (servidor público) shall perform his duties in a manner that primarily satisfies the public interest (interés público), which shall be considered as the expression of the coinciding individual interests of the administered persons (administrados).

2. The public interest (interés público) shall prevail over the interest of the Public Administration when they may be in conflict.

3. In the assessment of the public interest (interés público), the values of legal certainty (seguridad jurídica) and justice for the community and the individual shall be taken into account first, to which mere convenience may in no case be preferred.

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1. The public servant (servidor público) shall be a servant of the administered persons (administrados), in general, and in particular of each individual or administered person who relates to him by virtue of the function he performs; each administered person (administrado) shall be considered in the individual case as a representative of the community on which the official depends and for whose interests he must watch.

2. Without prejudice to what other laws establish for the servant (servidor), any act, deed, or omission that, due to his fault or negligence, causes unjustified or arbitrary hindrances or obstacles to the administered persons (administrados) is considered, in particular, irregular performance of his function.

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On the De Facto Official (Funcionario de Hecho)

a)That the absence or irregularity of the investiture has not yet been declared, neither administratively nor jurisdictionally; and b) That the conduct is carried out in a public, peaceful, continuous manner and normally in accordance with the law.

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1. The acts of the de facto official (funcionario de hecho) shall be valid even if they harm the administered person (administrado) and even if the latter is aware of the irregularity of the former's investiture.

2. The Administration shall be bound or favored before third parties by virtue of the same.

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1. The de facto official (funcionario de hecho) shall be liable before the Administration and before the administered persons (administrados) for the damages caused by his conduct.

2. The Administration shall be liable before the administered persons (administrados) for the conduct of the de facto official (funcionario de hecho).

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On Administrative Acts

On Classification and Value

1. For the purposes of classification and value, the acts of the Administration are classified as external and internal, according to whether or not they are destined for the administered person (administrado); and as concrete and general, according to whether or not they are destined for an identified subject.

2. The concrete act shall be subject in all cases to the general act, and the internal act to the external act, with the exception contemplated in Articles 126 and 127.

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1. Acts shall be called decrees (decretos) when they are of a general scope and agreements (acuerdos) when they are concrete.

2. Decrees of a normative scope shall also be called regulations or regulatory decrees (reglamentos o decretos reglamentarios).

3. Agreements (acuerdos) that decide an administrative recourse (recurso) or claim shall be called resolutions (resoluciones).

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1. Internal acts shall have no value before the general legal system of the State to the detriment of the individual, but not to their benefit.

2. In the latter case, the individual invoking them must accept them in their entirety.

3. The violation of internal regulations to the detriment of the individual shall cause the invalidity of the act and, eventually, the liability of the State and the public servant (servidor público), under the terms of this law.

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1. Internal acts that are regulated by law, regulation, or any other norm of the State shall have external relevance before the administered persons (administrados) and the ordinary courts, notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding article.

2. Internal acts of the Administration that affect their rights in the service relations between them shall have equal external relevance for the servants (servidores) of the Administration.

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1. Internal instructions and circulars must be displayed in showcases or on bulletin boards in the respective office for a minimum period of one month and compiled in a catalog or folder that must be permanently available to officials and to the administered persons (administrados).

2. The infringement of the foregoing classification shall have no effect, but ignorance of the value and hierarchy of the acts established above shall produce absolute nullity (nulidad absoluta).

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On Acts that Exhaust the Administrative Channel (Vía Administrativa)

a)Those of the Executive Branch (Poder Ejecutivo), the President of the Republic and the Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno), or, as the case may be, those of the hierarchical head (jerarca) of the respective Supreme Branch (Supremo Poder); b) Those of the respective hierarchical heads (jerarcas) of decentralized entities, when they correspond to their exclusive competence or administrative specialty, unless any administrative recourse (recurso administrativo) against them is granted by law; c) Those of the deconcentrated bodies of the Administration, or, as the case may be, those of the superior body of the same, when they correspond to their exclusive competence and provided that no administrative recourse (recurso administrativo) against them is granted by law or regulation; and d) Those of Ministers, Vice-Ministers, and any other bodies and authorities, when the law expressly so provides or denies any further administrative recourse (recurso administrativo) against them.

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(Thus amended by subsection 5) of Article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Ley N° 8508 of April 28, 2006) ---

On Elements and Validity

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1. The act must objectively appear as a free and conscious manifestation of will, directed at producing the desired legal effect for the purpose sought by the legal system.

2. Error shall not be a defect (vicio) of the administrative act, but when it falls upon other elements of the same, the absence of these shall vitiate the act, in accordance with this law.

3. Fraud (dolo) and violence shall vitiate the act only when they constitute misuse of power (desviación de poder).

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1. Every administrative act shall have one or several particular purposes to which the others shall be subordinated.

2. The main purposes of the act shall be set by the legal system; however, the absence of a law indicating the main purposes shall not create discretionary power for the administrator in this regard, and the judge must determine them in view of the other elements of the act and the rest of the legal system.

3. The pursuit of a purpose different from the main one, to the detriment of the latter, shall be misuse of power (desviación de poder).

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1. The content must be lawful, possible, clear, and precise, and it encompasses all questions of fact and law arising from the reason (motivo), even if they have not been debated by the interested parties.

2. It must also be proportionate to the legal purpose and correspond to the reason (motivo), when both are regulated.

3. When the reason (motivo) is not regulated, the content must be, even if in an imprecise manner.

4. Its adaptation to the purpose may be achieved through the discretionary insertion of conditions, terms, and modes, provided that, in addition to meeting the characteristics of the content indicated above, the latter are legally compatible with the regulated part of the same.

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1. The reason (motivo) must be legitimate and exist just as it has been taken into account for issuing the act.

2. When it is not regulated, it must be proportionate to the content, and when it is regulated in an imprecise manner, it must be reasonably in conformity with the undefined concepts employed by the legal system.

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1. The administrative act must be expressed in writing, unless its nature or circumstances demand a different form.

2. The written act shall indicate the acting body, the applicable law, the provision, the date, and the signature, mentioning the position of the signatory.

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1. When a series of acts of the same nature must be issued, such as appointments, permits, licenses, etc., they may be consolidated into a single document that will specify the persons and other circumstances that individualize each of the acts, and only said document shall bear the requisite signature.

2. The acts referred to in the previous article shall be considered, for all purposes, such as notifications and challenges, etc., as differentiated administrative acts.

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1. Acts shall be reasoned with a mention, at least succinct, of their grounds in the following cases:

a)Acts that impose obligations or that limit, suppress, or deny subjective rights; b) Those that resolve recourses (recursos); c) Those that depart from the criterion followed in preceding actions or from the opinion of consultative bodies; d) Those of suspension of acts that have been the subject of a recourse (recurso); e) Regulations and discretionary acts of general scope; and f) Those that must be so by virtue of law.

2. The reasoning may consist of an explicit or unequivocal reference to the reasons for the petition of the administered person (administrado), or to proposals, opinions, or prior resolutions that have actually determined the adoption of the act, provided that a copy thereof is attached.

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On Effectiveness

On Effectiveness in General

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1. To be challengeable, administratively or jurisdictionally, the act must be effective. In any case, proper communication shall be the starting point for the time limits for challenging the administrative act.

2. If the act is improperly put into execution before being effective or being communicated, the administered person (administrado) may choose to consider it challengeable from the moment they become aware of the start of the execution.

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1. The administrative act shall produce effect against the administered person (administrado) only for the future, with the exceptions that will be stated.

2. For it to produce effect towards the past in favor of the administered person (administrado), it is required that from the date indicated for the beginning of its effect, the reasons (motivos) for its adoption exist, and that the retroaction does not injure the rights or interests of third parties acting in good faith.

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1. The administrative act may not take effect or be executed to the detriment of the subjective rights of third parties acting in good faith, unless there is an express or unequivocal provision to the contrary in the legal system.

2. Any injury caused by an act to the subjective rights of third parties acting in good faith must be fully compensated, without prejudice to the appropriate annulment.

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1. The effects of the administrative act may be subject to effectiveness requirements (requisitos de eficacia), established by the act itself or by the legal system.

2. Effectiveness requirements (requisitos de eficacia) shall produce retroactive effect to the date of the administrative act, unless there is an express provision to the contrary in the legal system.

3. When the act requires authorization from another body, such authorization must be prior.

4. When the act requires approval from another body, while such approval has not been given, the former shall not be effective, nor may it be communicated, challenged, or executed.

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On Enforceability (Ejecutoriedad)

1. The Administration shall have the power to enforce by itself, without recourse to the Courts, effective, valid, or voidable administrative acts, even against the will or resistance of the obligated party, subject to any liability that may result.

2. The use of administrative enforcement measures shall be without prejudice to the other liabilities that the administered person (administrado) may incur due to their default.

3. Administrative enforcement of ineffective or absolutely null (absolutamente nulos) acts shall not proceed, and such enforcement, if it occurs, shall produce criminal liability for the servant (servidor) who ordered it, without prejudice to any other resulting liabilities.

4. Enforcement under these circumstances shall be deemed as abuse of power.

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1. The means of administrative enforcement shall be the following:

a)Forced execution by means of levy (apremio) on the patrimony of the administered person (administrado), in the case of a liquidated credit of the Administration, all with application of the pertinent norms of the Code of Civil Procedure (Código de Procedimientos Civiles) on attachment and auction, with the exception that the executory title (título ejecutivo) may be the certification of the act constituting the credit issued by the body competent to order enforcement; b) Substitute execution, in the case of obligations whose fulfillment can be achieved by a third party instead of the obligated party, in which case the costs of the enforcement shall be borne by the latter and may be collected from them according to the procedure indicated in the preceding subsection; and c) Forced compliance, when the obligation is strictly personal, to give, to do, or to tolerate or not to do, with the alternative of converting it into damages (daños y perjuicios) at the prudential discretion of the Administration, collectible through the procedure indicated in subsection a).

2. In the case of forced compliance, the Administration shall obtain the assistance of the police and may employ public force within the limits of what is strictly necessary. To this end, the Administration may seize property and close commercial establishments.

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1. Administrative enforcement may not precede the proper communication of the main act, under penalty of liability.

2. It must be preceded by two consecutive notifications (intimaciones), except in case of urgency.

3. The notifications (intimaciones) shall contain a requirement to comply, a clear definition and warning of the applicable coercive measure, which may not be more than one, and a reasonable period to comply.

4. The notifications (intimaciones) may be ordered together with the main act or separately.

5. When it is possible to choose among various coercive measures, the competent servant (servidor) must choose the least onerous or harmful among those that are sufficient for the purpose.

6. The coercive measures shall be applicable one at a time, but they may be varied in the face of the default of the administered person (administrado) if the previous measure has not produced an effect.

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Violent resistance to the enforcement of an administrative act is prohibited, under penalty of civil liability, and, where applicable, criminal liability.

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On Revocation

1. The administrative act may be revoked for reasons of opportunity, convenience, or merit, with the exceptions contemplated in this law.

2. Revocation shall only take place when there is a serious divergence between the effects of the act and the public interest (interés público), despite the time elapsed, the rights created, or the nature and other circumstances of the legal relationship that is intended to be terminated.

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1. Revocation may be based on the appearance of new factual circumstances, not existing or not known at the time the original act was issued.

2. It may also be based on a different assessment of the same factual circumstances that gave rise to the act, or of the affected public interest (interés público).

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Permits for the use of public domain, and other acts that recognize an express and validly precarious right to an administered person (administrado), may be revoked for reasons of opportunity or convenience without liability of the Administration; but the revocation must not be untimely or arbitrary, and in all cases, a reasonable period must be given for compliance with the revocation act.

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1. The revocation of an act declaring subjective rights must be done by the hierarchical head (jerarca) of the respective entity, after a favorable opinion from the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República).

2. Simultaneously, it must contain the acknowledgement and, if possible, the calculation of the complete compensation for the damages (daños y perjuicios) caused, under penalty of absolute nullity (nulidad absoluta).

3. In all cases, the damages (daños y perjuicios) must be liquidated by the Administration within the month following the request or recourse (recurso) of the administered person (administrado) containing the liquidation requested by the latter.

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1. The revocation of regulated acts shall not be possible.

2. The revocation of discretionary acts of continuous effect may be done in accordance with the preceding articles.

3. Acts unfavorable to the administered person (administrado) may be revoked, even if they are final for the individual, after an opinion from the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República).

4. The power of revocation established in the preceding paragraph shall expire in four years.

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On Nullities

General Provisions

1. The lack or defect of any requirement of the administrative act, expressly or implicitly demanded by the legal system, shall constitute a defect (vicio) of the same.

2. An act substantially contrary to the legal system shall be invalid.

3. The causes of invalidity may be any substantial infringements of the legal system, including those of unwritten norms.

4. For this purpose, technical and scientific rules of univocal meaning and exact application, under the circumstances of the case, shall be understood as incorporated into the legal system.

5. Insubstantial infringements shall not invalidate the act but may give rise to disciplinary liability of the acting servant (servidor agente).

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1. The nullity of the act may supervene due to the disappearance of one of the conditions required by the legal system for its adoption, when the permanence of said condition is necessary for the existence of the legal relationship created, by reason of the nature of the same or by provision of law.

2. In this case, the declaration of nullity shall take effect from the event that motivates it.

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1. Defects (vicios) specific to the execution of an invalid act shall be challenged separately from those affecting the act.

2. Defects (vicios) specific to preparatory acts shall be challenged jointly with the act, unless the former are, in turn, acts with their own effect.

3. Defects (vicios) of control acts (actos de contralor) or, in general, of those that affect the effectiveness of the act in a manner unfavorable to it, shall be challenged separately.

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1. The invalidity of an act shall not imply that of the successive acts in the procedure that are independent of the invalid one.

2. The partial invalidity of an act shall not imply that of the other parts of the same that are independent of it.

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On the Classes of Nullity

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On Absolute Nullity (Nulidad Absoluta)

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1. Ordering the execution of an absolutely null (absolutamente nulo) act shall produce civil liability of the Administration, and civil, administrative, and potentially criminal liability of the servant (servidor), if the execution should actually take place.

2. The execution by obedience of an absolutely null (absolutamente nulo) act shall be governed by the general rules pertinent to the same.

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1)When the absolute nullity (nulidad absoluta) of an act declaring rights is evident and manifest, it may be declared by the Administration through the administrative channel (vía administrativa), without the need to resort to the contentious-administrative process of lesividad provided for in the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, after a favorable opinion from the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic (Procuraduría General de la República); this opinion is obligatory and binding. When the absolute nullity (nulidad absoluta) concerns administrative acts directly related to the budgetary process or administrative procurement, the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic (Contraloría General de la República) must issue the opinion.

In both cases, the respective opinions must expressly rule on the absolute, evident, and manifest character of the nullity invoked.

2)In the case of the central Administration of the State, the Minister of the branch that issued the respective act must declare the nullity. In the case of other public entities or Branches (Poderes) of the State, the supreme organ of the administrative hierarchy must declare it. Against what is decided, a recourse for reconsideration (recurso de reposición o de reconsideración) shall be available, under the terms of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo.
3)Prior to the final annulment act of the acts referred to in this article, the Administration must give a hearing to the parties involved and comply with the ordinary administrative procedure (procedimiento administrativo ordinario) provided for in this Law.
4)The power of ex officio review established in this article shall expire in one year, from the adoption of the act, unless its effects continue.
5)The administrative annulment of an act contrary to the provisions of this article, whether due to omission of the required formalities or because it is not absolute, evident, and manifest, shall be absolutely null, and the Administration shall also be obligated to pay damages, losses, and costs; all without prejudice to the personal liabilities of the public servant (servidor agente), in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 199.
6)In cases where the issuance of an administrative act vitiated by absolute, evident, and manifest nullity involves two or more ministries, or when it concerns a declaration of nullity of mutually related administrative acts issued by different bodies, the provisions of subsection d) of Article 26 of this Law shall apply.
7)An action for declaration of harmfulness (pretensión de lesividad) may not be raised by way of counterclaim.

(As amended by Article 200, subsection 6) of Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006, Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo)

1. The Administration shall be obligated to annul on its own motion the absolutely null act, within the limitations of this Law.

2. Annulment on its own motion of a relatively null act shall be discretionary and must be justified by a specific, current reason of timeliness (oportunidad).

In the case of acts with continuing effects, the period shall be computed from the cessation of their effects.

(As amended by subsection 7) of Article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006)

Relative Nullity

1. The relatively null act shall be presumed legitimate as long as a final declaration to the contrary has not been made through the jurisdictional channel (vía jurisdiccional), and every individual (administrado) must obey it and its execution.

2. Disobedience to or noncompliance with the relatively null act shall give rise to civil liability and, if applicable, criminal liability on the part of the individual (administrado).

1. The time periods and standing to challenge the relatively null act through administrative channels (vía administrativa) shall be those set forth in this law.

2. The time periods and standing to challenge it through jurisdictional channels (vía jurisdiccional) shall be those set forth in the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo(*).

(*)(As amended by subsection 12) of Article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006).

The Body and the Powers

1. The Judge may not declare the invalidity of the act on his own motion, except in the case of substantial defects (infracciones sustanciales) relating to the subject (sujeto), the procedure, or the form, in which cases he must do so.

2. For the purposes of this article, the subject (sujeto) shall be understood as an element encompassing the existence of the entity and its capacity, the existence of the body and its jurisdiction, the requirements necessary for the exercise thereof, and the proper investiture of the public servant.

3. The Judge may control on his own motion the existence of all the aforementioned aspects in relation to the subject (sujeto) of the act, with the exception contained in the following paragraph.

4. Relative lack of jurisdiction (incompetencia relativa) may not be declared or invoked on the court's own motion.

1)The administration shall retain its power to annul or declare on its own motion the nullity of the act—whether absolute or relative—even if the individual (administrado) has allowed the applicable administrative recourses and actions to expire (caducar), provided that such review is for the benefit of the individual (administrado) and his rights.
2)The power of ex officio review enshrined in this article shall not be subject to a statute of limitations period (plazo de caducidad) and may be exercised by the Administration, following a binding opinion (dictamen vinculante) from the Procuraduría General de la República.

(The preceding subsection as amended by subsection 8) of Article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006).

3)Outside the cases provided for in Article 173 of this Code, the Administration may not annul on its own motion acts declaring rights in favor of the individual (administrado) and, to obtain their elimination, must resort to the action for declaration of harmfulness (proceso de lesividad), provided for in the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo.

(The preceding subsection as amended by subsection 8) of Article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006).

(As amended by Article 47 (currently 50) of the Ley Orgánica de la Procuraduría General de la República, No. 6815 of September 27, 1982)

Validation (Convalidación), Cure (Saneamiento), and Conversion (Conversión)

1. A relatively null act defective in form, content, or jurisdiction may be validated (convalidado) by means of a new act that contains mention of the defect and its correction.

2. Validation (convalidación) has retroactive effect to the date of the validated act.

1. When the defect of the relatively null act consists of the absence of a substantial formality, such as a mandatory authorization, a proposal or request from another body, or a petition or demand from the individual (administrado), these may be provided after the act, accompanied by a declaration of conformity with all its terms.

2. The foregoing may not be applied to the omission of opinions (dictámenes) or to cases in which the omissions indicated above produce absolute nullity, because they prevent the achievement of the purpose of the final act.

3. Cure (saneamiento) shall produce retroactive effect to the date of the cured act.

1. An invalid act, whether absolutely or relatively null, may be converted (convertido) into another distinct valid act by an express declaration of the Administration, provided that the former presents all the formal and substantive requirements of the latter.

2. Conversion (conversión) takes effect from its date.

Liability of the Administration and the Public Servant

Liability of the Administration

General Provisions

1. The Administration shall be liable for all damages caused by its legitimate or illegitimate, normal or abnormal operation, except for force majeure, fault of the victim, or act of a third party.

2. The Administration shall be liable in accordance with this article, even when it cannot be so under the following sections of this Chapter, but liability for lawful acts or normal operation shall arise only according to the terms of the following Section Three.

Liability of the Administration for Unlawful Conduct

7494 of May 2, 1995)

Liability of the Administration for Lawful Conduct

1. The Administration shall be liable for its lawful acts and for its normal operation when they cause damage to the rights of the individual (administrado) in a special manner, due to the small proportion of those affected or the exceptional intensity of the harm.

2. In this case, the compensation (indemnización) shall cover the value of the damages at the time of payment, but not lost profits (lucro cesante).

3. The State shall be liable for damages caused directly by a law, which are special in accordance with the present article.

Common Regime of Liability

The right to claim compensation from public servants shall prescribe in four years from the time the harmful event becomes known.

In the cases provided for in the two preceding paragraphs, when the right is to claim damages and losses caused to minors, the prescription period shall begin to run from the time the affected person reaches the age of majority.

(As amended by Article 3 of Law No. 9057 of July 23, 2012, "Reforma de varias leyes sobre la Prescripción de Daños Causados a Personas menores de Edad") (Note from Sinalevi: In accordance with the Transitional Provision of Law No. 7611 of July 12, 1996, with respect to prescription periods, proceedings initiated in administrative and judicial venues upon the entry into force of this law shall be governed by prior legislation, i.e., taking the prescription period of three years)

Liability of the Servant to Third Parties

1. The public servant who has acted with willful misconduct (dolo) or gross negligence (culpa grave) in the performance of his duties or on the occasion thereof shall be personally liable to third parties, even if he only used the means and opportunities offered by the office.

2. Included in such cases shall be the official who issues manifestly illegal acts, and the one who obeys them in accordance with this law.

3. Manifest illegality shall exist, among other cases, when the Administration deviates from opinions or advisory reports (dictámenes u opiniones consultivos) that expose the illegality, if the invalidity of the act is subsequently declared for the reasons invoked by the opinion (dictamen).

4. The classification of the servant's conduct for the purposes of this article shall be made without prejudice to joint and several liability (solidaridad de responsabilidades) with the Administration toward the injured party.

1. Whenever the invalidity of administrative acts is declared, the authority resolving it must expressly rule on whether the illegality was manifest or not, in the terms of Article 199.

2. In the affirmative case, it must initiate on its own motion the corresponding procedure to determine the consequent liabilities.

1. The individual (administrado) or third party shall never have the right to more than one full compensation for the damage received, and the Administration or the guilty public servant may reduce their debt by the amount paid by the other, in order to prevent the victim from collecting the same thing twice.

2. The payment made may be asserted by way of action or exception.

Internal Distribution of Liabilities

1. The Administration must fully recover what it has paid to repair the damages caused to a third party by willful misconduct (dolo) or gross negligence (culpa grave) of its servant, taking into account its own participation in causing the damage, if any.

2. The recovery must also include the damages and losses caused to the Administration by the respective disbursement.

1. The Administration's action against the guilty servant under the foregoing terms shall be executory and may be brought whether the payment made to the victim is voluntary or in execution of a judgment.

2. In both cases, the certification or record of debt issued by the Administration shall serve as an executory title against the guilty servant, but when there is a judgment for a liquidated sum, the certification must coincide therewith under penalty of losing its executory value.

1. When the damage has been caused by the Administration and the guilty servant, or by several servants, the liabilities shall be distributed among them according to the degree of participation of each, even if not all are parties to the litigation.

2. For this purpose, anyone appearing from the case record (autos) to be liable for the damage caused must be summoned (citado) as a party.

1. The judgment issued, as the case may be, shall pass into res judicata (cosa juzgada), but shall have no effect with respect to those who have not been summoned as a party, even if their participation in the events was debated in the litigation and considered in the judgment.

2. A sued servant who has not been summoned as a party in the liability litigation may challenge not only the amount of the compensatory obligation but also its existence.

(As amended by Article 1 of Law No. 7611 of July 12, 1996)

1. The Minister on whom the agent depends shall be personally liable, civilly, for the full compliance with the provisions of the preceding articles.

2. If the responsible parties are the President of the Republic and the Minister, it shall be incumbent upon the Contraloría General de la República to oversee compliance with the foregoing articles, also under civil liability of its heads.

1. The public servant shall be liable to the Administration for all damages caused to it by willful misconduct (dolo) or gross negligence (culpa grave), even if no damage to a third party has occurred.

2. To enforce this liability, the foregoing articles shall apply, with the pertinent exceptions.

3. The recovery action shall be executory, and the title shall be the certification of the amount of the damage issued by the superior (jerarca) of the respective entity.

Disciplinary Liability of the Servant

1. The public servant shall be subject to disciplinary liability for his actions, acts, or contracts contrary to the legal order, when he has acted with willful misconduct (dolo) or gross negligence (culpa grave), without prejudice to any more severe disciplinary regime provided for by other laws.

2. The superior shall also be disciplinarily liable for the acts of his immediate subordinates, when he and the latter have acted with willful misconduct (dolo) or gross negligence (culpa grave).

3. No sanction may be imposed without the prior formation of a file (expediente), with full opportunity for the servant to be heard in order to assert his rights and prove his innocence.

BOOK TWO Administrative Procedure

General Principles SINGLE CHAPTER

1. The administrative procedure shall serve to ensure the best possible fulfillment of the Administration's purposes, with respect for the subjective rights and legitimate interests of the individual (administrado), in accordance with the legal order.

2. Its most important purpose is the verification of the real truth of the facts that serve as the basis for the final act.

1. The procedure regulated by this law shall apply when the final act is to produce effects in the legal sphere of other persons.

2. The superior (jerarca) may discretionally regulate internal procedures, but must respect this law.

1. The Administration must adopt its decisions within the procedure in strict adherence to the legal order and, in the case of discretionary actions, to the limits of rationality and reasonableness implicit therein.

2. The administrative body must also act subject to the orders, circulars, and instructions of the hierarchical superior, within the limits of this Law.

1. The Administration may exceptionally dispense with the hearing and appearance procedures indicated in Articles 217 and 218, only when urgency so requires to prevent serious harm to persons or irreparable damage to property.

2. Unjustified omission of said procedures shall cause defenselessness (indefensión) and the nullity of all subsequent proceedings.

The Administration may exceptionally limit his intervention to what is prudently necessary and, in extreme cases, require him to be assisted or represented by an attorney (abogado), without leading to the suppression of the previously enshrined rights to a hearing and defense, outside the case of urgency provided for in Article 219.

1. The procedural impulse of the administrative procedure shall be carried out on its own motion, without prejudice to that which the parties may give it.

2. The inertia of the Administration shall not excuse that of the individual (administrado), for the purposes of expiration (caducidad) of the procedure.

1. Only the omission of substantial formalities of the procedure shall cause the nullity of the proceedings.

2. Substantial shall be understood as a formality whose correct completion would have prevented or changed the final decision in important aspects, or whose omission caused defenselessness (indefensión).

1. The body must conduct the procedure with the intention of achieving maximum celerity and efficiency, within respect for the legal order and the rights and interests of the individual (administrado).

2. The Administration and the servant shall be liable for any serious and unjustified delay.

1. In cases of urgency and to prevent serious harm to persons or irreparable damage to property, one or all of the formalities of the procedure may be dispensed with, and a special substitute procedure may even be created.

2. The judge may oversee not only the materiality of the facts giving rise to the urgency but also their gravity and proportionality in relation to the dispensation or substitution of procedural steps carried out.

1. The directing body shall resolve all preliminary questions arising during the course of the procedure, even if they fall within the jurisdiction of other administrative authorities; but it must consult them to the latter immediately after the question arises, and the consulted body must issue its opinion within three days.

2. The resolution on preliminary questions shall have effect only within the file (expediente) and for its purposes.

(*)(As amended by subsection 12) of Article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006)

1. This Book shall govern the procedures of the entire Administration, except for any provision to the contrary.

2. In the absence of an express provision in its text, the other Books of this law, the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo(*), the other written and unwritten norms, with legal or regulatory rank, of the administrative legal order, and, as a last resort, the Código de Procedimiento Civiles, the Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial, and the rest of the common law (Derecho común), shall apply supplementarily, insofar as they are compatible.

(*)(The preceding subparagraph as amended by subsection 12) of Article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006)

Abstention and Recusal SINGLE CHAPTER

1. The grounds for abstention (abstención) shall be the same as those for disqualification (impedimento) and recusal (recusación) established in the Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial and, additionally, those resulting from Article 102 of the Ley de la Administración Financiera de la República.

2. The grounds for abstention shall apply to the directing body, to the appellate body, and to the other authorities or officials intervening to assist or advise them in the procedure.

3. However, when the grounds concur in a member of a collegial body, the abstention shall not extend to the other members, except in qualified cases where they consider it appropriate.

1. The authority or official directing the procedure in whom a ground for abstention exists shall make a record thereof and forward the file (expediente) to the superior of the appellate body, who shall resolve within three days.

2. If the superior does not accept the abstention, he shall return the file so that the official may continue hearing the matter.

3. If the abstention is declared appropriate, the superior shall designate in the same act a substitute official, who must be of the same rank as the recused official.

4. If there is no official of the same rank as the recused one, knowledge of the matter shall correspond to the immediate superior.

1. When the ground for abstention affects the appellate body, the procedure provided for in the preceding article shall be followed, but the resolution shall correspond to the respective hierarchical superior.

2. If there is no hierarchical superior, the President of the Republic shall resolve.

1. In the case of a collegial body, the member with a ground for abstention shall withdraw from knowledge of the matter, recording it before the body to which he belongs.

2. In this case, the abstention shall be resolved by the remaining members of the collegial body, if there are sufficient to form a quorum; otherwise, the superior of the body shall resolve, if one exists, or, failing that, the President of the Republic.

3. If the abstention is granted, knowledge of the matter shall be taken up by the same collegial body, composed with substitutes if it has them, or with substitutes designated ad hoc by the appointing authority.

1. If a ground for abstention occurs in other officials, the rules of the preceding articles shall apply, insofar as they are compatible.

2. In such cases, the resolution shall correspond to the hierarchical superior of the recused official.

1. When a ground for abstention exists, the party harmed by the respective cause may also recuse (recusar) the official.

2. The recusal shall be raised in writing, stating the cause on which it is based and indicating or attaching the pertinent evidence.

3. The recused official, upon receiving the writing, shall decide on the same day or the next whether he abstains or considers the recusal unfounded, and shall proceed, in any case, in the manner prescribed by the preceding articles.

4. The superior or body called upon to resolve may request the reports and order the other evidence it deems appropriate within the non-extendable period of five days, and shall resolve in the manner and terms indicated in the preceding articles.

5. The recusal of the President of the Republic shall not be allowed.

1. The participation of officials in whom grounds for abstention exist shall imply the invalidity of the acts in which they have intervened and, in addition, shall give rise to liability.

2. When the grounds for abstention are those of disqualification (impedimento) provided for in Article 199 of the Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial, or those of Article 102 of the Ley de la Administración Financiera de la República, the nullity shall be absolute; in other cases, it shall be relative.

3. Superior bodies must remove from the file (expediente) persons in whom a ground for abstention exists that is capable of causing absolute nullity in accordance with the preceding paragraph.

1. Resolutions issued on abstention shall have no recourse whatsoever.

2. Those issued on the occasion of a recusal shall have the ordinary administrative recourses.

3. The foregoing is without prejudice to the power of the appellate body and the courts, when reviewing the final act, to review on their own motion or at the request of a party the grounds for abstention that may have implied absolute nullity, as well as to discretionally assess the others.

Formalities of the Procedure

Notification of Procedural Acts

1. General acts shall be communicated by publication and specific acts by notification.

2. When a general act particularly affects a person whose place for notifications is indicated in the case file or is known by the Administration, the act must also be notified to them.

1. Publication cannot normally substitute for notification.

2. When the place for notifications to the interested party is unknown or mistaken due to their own fault, the act must be communicated to them by publication, in which case the communication shall be deemed made five days after the latter.

3. The same rule shall apply for the first notification in a proceeding, if the residence, workplace, or any other exact address of the interested party does not appear in the case file, upon indication by the Administration or by any of the parties; otherwise, notification must be made.

4. The publication substituting for notification shall be made three consecutive times in the Official Gazette, and the time limits shall be counted from the last one.

1)Notification may be made personally, by means of a telegram or certified letter addressed to the designated place for notifications and, in the case of commercial companies, to the email address indicated for this purpose in the Legal Entities Registry of the National Registry. If no designation has been made by the interested party, the notification must be made at the residence, workplace, or address of the interested party, if these appear in the case file by indication of the Administration or any of the parties.

(Thus amended by Article 3, subsection a) of the Law to Establish Email as a Means of Notification for Commercial Companies, No. 10597 of November 5, 2024) 2) In the case of personal notification, the respective record signed by the interested party or the notifier shall serve as proof, or, if the former has refused to sign, the latter shall record this circumstance.

3)In the case of a telegram or certified letter, the notification shall be deemed made with the withdrawal slip or the receipt record signed by the person making the delivery.
4)When it is not the first notification of the proceeding nor another resolution that must be notified personally, the resolutions may be notified by email, fax, or by any other technological form that allows for the security of the communication act. For this purpose, the parties shall indicate, in their first filing, the chosen means for receiving subsequent notifications. When these means are used, copies of the filings and documents shall be made available to the parties at the respective administration.
5)The Administration is authorized, in addition to the forms of notification provided for in this Law, to implement other modalities of notification, when technological systems so permit, provided that the security of the communication act, due process are guaranteed, and no defenselessness is caused.
6)Notifications of the opening of disciplinary proceedings related to harassment or sexual harassment in workplaces or educational centers shall be governed by the provisions of Law 7476, Law against Sexual Harassment in Employment and Teaching, of February 3, 1995.

(Thus added by Article 3 of the Law to Facilitate the Notification Processes for the Opening of Disciplinary Proceedings for Sexual Harassment in Employment and Teaching, No. 10454 of March 20, 2024) (Thus amended by Article 63 of the Judicial Notifications Law, No. 8687 of December 4, 2008)

1. When there are multiple parties or addressees of the act, it shall be communicated to all, unless they act jointly under a single representation or have designated a single domicile for notifications, in which case notifications shall be made at the corresponding single address.

2. If a single party has multiple proxies, notification shall be made only once, at the office designated first.

The notification shall contain the full text of the act, indicating the available remedies, the body that will resolve them, the body before which they must be filed, and the time limit for filing them.

The publication substituting for notification shall contain, in relation, the same content that the notification literally contains.

1. Communication made by an inadequate means, or outside the proper place, or omitting any part of the provisions of the act, shall be absolutely null and shall be deemed made at the moment when the party or interested party acts, expressly or implicitly acknowledging receipt, before the competent directing body.

2. Communication defective due to any other omission shall be relatively null and shall be deemed valid and properly made if the party or interested party does not seek its annulment within ten days following its execution.

3. Gestiones of other kinds within the time limit indicated in the preceding paragraph shall not validate the relatively null notification.

Summonses

1. The body directing the proceeding may summon the parties or any third party to testify or perform any act necessary for the normal development of the proceeding or for its final decision.

2. The summoned person may be compelled to appear by the public force, if they do not appear at the first summons.

3. They may also appear through a proxy, unless personal appearance is expressly required.

1. In the summons, it shall be necessary to indicate:

a)The name and address of the body issuing the summons; b) Known first and last names of the summoned person; c) The matter to which the summons refers, the capacity in which the person is summoned, and the purpose for which they are summoned; d) Whether the summoned person must appear personally or may do so through a proxy; e) The time period within which appearance is necessary, or the day, time, and place of appearance for the summoned person or their representative; and f) The warnings to which the summoned person is subject in case of omission, with a clear indication of the nature and extent of the sanctions.

2. Every summons must be signed by the directing body, indicating the first and last names of the respective public servant.

1. Every summons must precede the appearance by at least three days, unless otherwise provided or in case of urgency, in which case the time limit may be dispensed with and the summoned person compelled to appear, using the public force if necessary, at the very moment of the summons.

2. The time limit for the summons shall never exceed fifteen business days, with the exceptions provided by law.

1. The summons shall be made by telegram or certified letter addressed to the workplace or residence of the summoned person, except in case of urgency, in which case it may be made by telephone or orally, leaving a note in the case file.

2. If communication by the aforementioned means is impossible, through no fault of the Administration, the summons may be made by publication, in the manner indicated in Articles 241 and 242, but in a special column called "Summonses" and similarly classified.

3. The summons shall be deemed made three days after the publication of the last notice.

Time Limits and Terms

1. Time limits measured in days, for the Administration, include non-business days.

2. Those for private parties shall always be business days.

3. Time limits shall begin to run from the day following the last communication thereof, or of the appealable act, in the case of a remedy.

4. In the case of publications, that starting date shall be that of the last publication, unless the act indicates a later one.

1. The time limits of this law and its regulations are non-extendable; however, those granted by the directing authority in accordance with the same law may be extended by up to one-half more if the interested party demonstrates reasons that advise it as convenient or necessary, if there has been no fault on their part, and if there is no injury to the interests or rights of the counterparty or a third party.

2. The request for extension must be made before the expiration of the time limit, stating the reasons and providing proof if applicable.

3. Under the same conditions, new designations or extensions may be made.

4. Making new designations or extensions ex officio is prohibited.

1. Time limits may be suspended due to force majeure, ex officio or at the request of a party.

2. The allegation of force majeure must be made within eight days following its cessation, simultaneously with the act prevented by it, under penalty of losing the possibility of performing it and suffering the rejection of the requested suspension.

3. A reason that served as grounds for an extension or a new designation shall not be grounds for suspension.

4. The refusal or obstacle posed by the Administration to the examination of the case file by the administered party shall be deemed force majeure, if it has totally or partially prevented it, outside the cases provided for in Article 273. In this hypothesis, time limits shall be restored to the point at which the refusal or obstacle occurred.

5. The request for suspension does not suspend the proceeding.

6. If the request is granted, the procedure shall be restored to the point at which the force majeure began.

1. Terms shall be interrupted by the filing of the remedies established by law.

2. It shall not matter that the remedy has been filed before an incompetent authority, in the cases provided for in Article 68 of this law; nor that it lacks the necessary authentications, formalities, or fiscal stamps; nor, in general, that it suffers from any defect that does not produce its absolute nullity, provided they are corrected in accordance with this law.

1. The administrative procedure must be concluded, by a final act, within two months following its initiation, or, as applicable, following the filing of the complaint or petition of the administered party, unless otherwise provided by this Law.

2. To process the review phase through an ordinary remedy against the final act, the term shall be one month counted from the filing thereof.

3. If at the end of the indicated terms an express resolution has not been communicated, the claim or petition of the administered party shall be deemed rejected in view of the Administration's silence, whether for the filing of the appropriate administrative remedies or the contentious-administrative action as applicable, the latter under the terms and with the effects indicated by the Contentious-Administrative Procedure Code (*).

(*)(Thus amended by subsection 12) of Article 200 of the Contentious-Administrative Procedure Code, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006)

a)Those of mere procedure and the decision on petitions of that nature, three days; b) Notifications, three days counted from the respective act or from the occurrence of the events that must be made known; c) Opinions, expert reports, and similar technical reports, ten days after being requested; d) Mere non-technical administrative reports, three days after being requested.

1. In the case of suspension of a time limit due to force majeure, or if for any other reason the body has been unable to perform the scheduled acts or proceedings, within the time limits indicated by Articles 261 and 262, it must communicate this to the parties and to the superior, giving the reasons therefor and simultaneously setting a new time limit for this purpose, which may never exceed those indicated therein.

2. If there has been fault on the part of the servant in the delay, disciplinary sanction against them shall be applicable, and if the fault is serious, civil liability before the administered party shall apply to both the servant and the Administration.

1. Those steps that must be completed by the interested parties must be performed by them within a time limit of ten days, except in cases where a different time limit is established by law.

2. Interested parties who do not complete them may be declared, ex officio or at the request of a party, to have lost the right to the corresponding step.

1. The time limits and terms of the administrative procedure, intended for the Administration, may be reduced or expedited, respectively, for reasons of opportunity or convenience, by virtue of a resolution adopted by the director of the proceeding.

2. The resolution that so determines shall be subject to ordinary remedies.

3. The reduction of time limits and the expediting of terms intended for the parties or third parties may only be decreed by the Executive Branch, due to reasons of urgency.

Time and Place of the Procedure

1. The working hours for serving the public in the Administration’s offices shall be determined by decree and must be coordinated among the different centers within the same locality, be uniform in each of them, and be sufficiently broad so as not to harm the administered parties.

2. In each Office, the time given by its clock shall govern, or in the case of servants without a fixed seat or outside the seat, the time on their clock. In case of doubt, the official time must be verified immediately, if possible, and shall prevail.

1. The hours of the day when administrative acts are issued shall be expressed by their numbers from one to twenty-four.

2. Normally, administrative actions shall be carried out on business days and during business hours.

3. They may act on non-business days and hours, with prior authorization by the directing body, in the case of all public officials, when the delay may cause serious harm to the Administration or the interested party or render the effectiveness of an administrative act illusory, in the judgment of the respective official.

4. Authorization shall in no case imply a reduction of time limits or expediting of terms to the detriment of the administered party.

1. Administrative action must take place at the normal seat of the body and within the territorial limits of its competence, under penalty of absolute nullity of the act, unless the act, by its nature, must be performed outside the seat.

2. The servant may exceptionally act outside the seat for reasons of urgent necessity.

1. Administrative action shall be carried out in accordance with norms of economy, simplicity, speed, and efficiency.

2. The superior authorities of each center or unit shall ensure, with respect to their subordinates, the full compliance with this precept, which shall also serve as an interpretive criterion in the application of procedural rules.

Records and Annotations

1. The declarations of the parties, witnesses, and experts, and on-site inspections, must be recorded in a record. The record must indicate the place and date, the name and qualifications of the declarant, the declaration made or proceeding performed, and any other relevant circumstance.

2. The record must be prepared, read, and signed immediately after the documented act or proceeding.

3. The record, after being read, must be signed by the declarants, by the persons in charge of taking the declarations, and by the parties if they wish to record any statement. If any of the declarants does not wish to or cannot sign, a record of this and the reason shall be made.

4. When the declarations and proceedings referred to in the preceding paragraph are recorded, the record may be drawn up subsequently in accordance with the provisions of Article 313.

5. All related documents presented by the Administration or the parties during the proceeding shall be added to the record so that they form a single case file.

6. The directing body must preserve the presented objects that are susceptible to disappearance, recording this circumstance in the record.

(Thus amended by Article 2 of the Law to Improve the Budgetary Control Process, through the Correction of Normative and Practical Deficiencies of the Public Administration, No. 10053 of October 25, 2021)

Access to the Case File and Its Parts

1. The parties and their representatives, and any attorney, shall have the right at any stage of the proceeding to examine, read, and copy any part of the case file, as well as to request certification thereof, with the exceptions indicated in the following article.

2. The cost of copies and certifications shall be borne by the applicant.

1. There shall be no access to the parts of the case file whose knowledge could compromise state secrets or confidential information of the counterparty or, in general, when the examination of said parts gives a party an undue privilege or an opportunity to illegitimately harm the Administration, the counterparty, or third parties, within or outside the case file.

2. Draft resolutions shall be presumed to be in this condition, absent proof to the contrary, as well as reports for advisory bodies and the opinions of the latter before they have been rendered.

Articles 274.- The decision denying knowledge of and access to a part must be sufficiently reasoned. The ordinary remedies of this law shall apply against it.

The Parties

The Parties in General

The interest of the party must be legitimate and may be moral, scientific, religious, economic, or of any other nature.

(Thus amended by subsection 9) of Article 200 of the Contentious-Administrative Procedure Code, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006)

1. The exclusionary intervention of a third party, asserting a subjective right or a legitimate interest against one or both parties, shall be permitted, provided this does not serve to circumvent mandatory preclusion (caducidad) time limits.

2. Adhesive intervention to assert a right or own interest concurrent with that of a party shall be equally permitted, with the limitation of the preceding paragraph.

3. The intervening party may bring their own claims, provided they are cumulative.

Capacity, Representation, and Legal Representation

1. The capacity of the administered party to be a party and to act within the administrative procedure shall be governed by common law; that of the Administration, in accordance with the rules of public law.

2. The same rule shall govern legal representation and direction.

3. The Administration directing the procedure shall be represented by the respective directing body.

4. When the Administration is a party, it shall act through its representatives in accordance with the public law that governs it.

The Commencement and Development of the Procedure

Initiation of the Procedure

1. The petition of the party must contain:

a)Indication of the office to which it is addressed; b) First and last names, residence, and place for notifications of the party and whoever represents them; c) The claim, indicating the damages claimed, and their estimation, origin, and nature; d) The grounds or basis in fact; and e) Date and signature.

2. The absence of the requirements indicated in items b) and c) shall compel the rejection and archiving of the petition, unless they can be clearly inferred from the filing or the attached documents.

3. The lack of a signature shall necessarily result in the rejection and archiving of the petition.

1. The petition shall be valid without authentications even if the party does not present it, without prejudice to the Administration's power to demand verification of authenticity by the means it deems pertinent.

2. Filings made in person shall be deemed authentic.

1. All other correctable defects of the petition may be corrected within a time limit granted by the administration, not exceeding ten days.

2. The same procedure shall be followed when necessary documents are missing.

1. The petition must be filed with the competent body or any subordinate body, and a receipt must be issued, the date of which shall be considered the filing date.

2. The petition may also be filed by means of telegram or certified letter, in which case the filing date shall be the date of dispatch.

3. To establish the latter, the letter must be presented open, and the date of receipt by the Post Office shall be the date of dispatch, a date that must be affixed by stamp or by any other authentic means and signed by the respective public servant, both on the receipt note and on the letter, prior to its sealing and dispatch.

1. Any improperly filed petition or complaint may be processed ex officio by the corresponding authority.

2. However, the administrative authority shall not be subject to a term for issuing its decision in this regard, nor obliged to do so, except with respect to the inadmissibility of the petition or complaint.

3. The Administration shall outright reject petitions that are time-barred, impertinent, or evidently improper. The resolution that outright rejects a petition shall be subject to the same remedies as the final resolution.

Documentation to Accompany

1. With the filing referred to in Article 285, the interested parties shall accompany all pertinent documentation or, if they do not possess it, indicate where it is located.

2. They must also offer all other evidence they deem appropriate.

a)If issued outside Costa Rica, it must be legalized; b) If drafted in a foreign language, its translation must be attached, which may be done by the party.

The Course of the Procedure

1. In the handling of case files, the strict order of filing shall be observed.

2. The violation of the foregoing shall give rise to the liability of the official who committed it.

1. The Administration shall order and carry out all evidentiary proceedings necessary to determine the true facts that are the object of the proceeding, ex officio or at the request of a party.

2. The offering and admission of the parties' evidence shall be made subject to the limitations set forth in this law.

3. Evidence that cannot be received due to the fault of the parties shall be declared unevacuable.

1. The means of evidence may be all those permitted by public law, even if they are not admissible under common law.

2. Unless otherwise provided, evidence shall be assessed in accordance with the rules of sound criticism.

1. The Administration may not confess to its detriment.

2. The declarations or reports rendered by its representatives or servants shall be deemed testimony for all legal purposes.

3. There shall be no confession by default.

4. The directing body shall impose a fine of five hundred to one thousand colones on the person summoned for confession who fails to appear without just cause.

1. Technical opinions and experiments of any kind by the Administration shall normally be entrusted to the expert public bodies or servants in the relevant field, without prejudice to the application of the provisions of Title Two of this book.

2. When the State or a public entity lacks suitable personnel that another possesses, the latter must provide them at cost, and vice versa.

3. Only in cases of lack of experts, or great complexity or importance, may the services of technicians outside the Administration be contracted.

4. The parties may present expert witnesses, whose declarations shall be governed by the rules of testimonial evidence, but they may be questioned on technical and appraisal aspects.

1. There shall be no obligation to formulate interrogatories, whether confessional or of witnesses, in writing or in affirmative form.

2. Questions shall be posed to the interested party directly, by the parties, or by their proxy or lead attorney, or by the Administration, as applicable, without intermediation but under the direction and control of the directing body.

3. Whoever has the floor may request clarifications and additions, as well as ask questions to contradict, immediately after the answers are given, without waiting for the conclusion of the interrogation for this purpose.

4. Likewise, the directing body must intervene on its own initiative, so that the subject matter of each question is exhausted as much as possible immediately after each response.

1. The Administration may dispense with all evidence when it must decide solely based on the facts alleged by the parties, if it holds them to be true.

2. It must hold them to be true in any case if they are public or notorious facts or if they appear from its archives as alleged by the parties.

Of the Various Classes of Procedures

Of the Ordinary Procedure

1. The procedure established in this Title shall be mandatory in any of the following cases:

a)If the final act may cause serious harm to the administered party, whether by imposing obligations, suppressing or denying subjective rights, or by any other form of serious and direct injury to their rights or legitimate interests; and b) If there is contradiction or concurrence of interested parties before the Administration within the case file.

2. The rules of this Title shall apply to disciplinary procedures when these lead to the application of sanctions of suspension or dismissal, or any others of similar severity.

1. The ordinary procedure shall be conducted through an oral and private hearing, before the Administration, in which all pertinent evidence and arguments of the parties shall be admitted and received.

2. Ocular inspections and expert inspections may be conducted before the hearing.

3. A second hearing shall be convened only when it was impossible in the first to have the case file ready for its final decision, and the pending proceedings so require.

1. The Administration shall prepare the hearing in a useful manner, for which purpose the summons shall briefly list all pertinent documentation in its possession, indicate the office where it may be consulted, and make it available to those summoned and to the parties.

2. Likewise, the summons shall warn the parties that they must present all evidence before or at the time of the hearing, if they have not already done so.

3. All prior presentations must be made in writing.

1. Hearings, where possible, shall be recorded.

2. When they are recorded, the respective minutes may be drawn up subsequently with the sole signature of the directing official, but in any case it must be done before the final decision. The recording shall be preserved until the conclusion of the case file.

1. The body directing the procedure shall be responsible for directing the hearing.

2. If the body is collegiate, it shall be directed by the President or by the member designated for that purpose.

1. The unjustified absence of a party shall not prevent the hearing from taking place, but it shall not be considered as acceptance by that party of the facts, claims, or evidence of the Administration or the opposing party.

2. The directing body shall evacuate the evidence previously offered by the absent party, if this is possible.

1. The party shall have the right and the burden in the hearing to:

a)Offer their evidence; b) Obtain its admission and processing when it is pertinent and relevant; c) Request confession from the opposing party or testimony from the Administration, question and cross-examine witnesses and experts, their own or those of the opposing party; d) Clarify, expand, or reform their initial petition or defense; e) Propose alternatives and their evidence; and f) Formulate conclusions of fact and of law regarding the evidence and results of the hearing.

2. The foregoing must be done verbally and under penalty of expiration of the right to do so if omitted in the hearing.

3. Arguments may be presented in writing after the hearing only when it was not possible to do so during the hearing itself.

1. The hearing shall normally take place at the headquarters of the directing body, but if an ocular inspection or expert inspection must be conducted, it may take place at the location of the inspection.

2. It may also take place at another headquarters to achieve cost savings or any other evident administrative advantages, if this is possible without loss of time or serious harm to the parties.

1. Once the hearing is concluded, the matter shall be ready for the final act to be issued, which the competent body must do within a period of fifteen days, counted from the date of the hearing, unless it wishes to introduce new facts or complete the evidence, in which case it must consult the superior.

2. The latter shall decide within forty-eight hours and, if approved, shall set a maximum additional period of fifteen days for another hearing.

3. The provisions of this article shall be understood without prejudice to the maximum periods set forth in articles 261 and 263.

4. It shall be prohibited to hold more than two hearings.

Of the Summary Procedure

1. In the summary procedure there shall be no debates, defenses, or evidence offered by the parties, but the Administration must exhaustively verify on its own motion the material truth of the facts and elements of judgment of the case.

2. The evidence must be processed without scheduling, hearing, or audience of the parties.

1. The directing body may initially choose to convert the procedure into an ordinary one, for reasons of complexity and importance of the matter to be dealt with.

2. To this end, it must give a hearing to the parties and obtain approval from the superior.

3. The conversion process may not last more than six days.

Of the Termination of the Procedure

Of Normal Termination

Of the Final Act

1. The Administration shall always have the duty to resolve expressly within the periods of this law.

2. Failure to do so shall be deemed a serious fault of service.

3. The final act issued outside the period shall be valid for all legal purposes, unless the law provides otherwise.

1. The silence of the Administration shall be understood as positive when expressly so established or when it concerns authorizations or approvals that must be granted in the exercise of oversight and tutelage functions.

2. Silence shall also be understood as positive when it concerns requests for permits, licenses, and authorizations.

1. The period for positive silence to arise shall be one month, starting from when the body receives the request for approval, authorization, or license with the legal requirements.

2. Once positive silence has occurred, the Administration may not issue an act denying the request, nor extinguish the act except in those cases and in the manner provided for in this law.

1. If reasons of evident necessity or convenience require that the procedure be decided before being ready for the final act, the directing body may adopt a provisional decision, on its own motion or at the request of a party, expressly stating so.

2. Such a resolution may be challenged and executed in itself, the latter upon guarantee of damages if required by the Administration or the opposing party.

3. The provisional resolution must be replaced by the final one, whether it be revocatory or confirmatory.

4. The provisional resolution shall not interrupt or extend the terms for issuing the final act.

1. When a case can be decided by separable matters or aspects and one or some are ready for decision, the directing body may rule on those aspects, at the request of an interested party.

2. The decision rendered under these conditions shall be considered provisional in relation to the final act and also for purposes of its challenge and execution.

Of the Communication of the Final Act

Of Abnormal Termination

Withdrawal and Waiver

1. Any interested party may withdraw their petition, request, or appeal.

2. Any interested party may also waive their right, when it is waivable.

1. Both withdrawal and waiver must be made in writing.

2. The Administration shall accept the withdrawal or waiver outright, unless, other interested parties having appeared, they request the continuation within a period of ten days from when they were notified of one or the other.

3. If the question raised by the case file involves a general interest, or it is convenient to substantiate it for its definition and clarification, the Administration shall limit the effects of the withdrawal or waiver to their possible patrimonial consequences regarding the interested party, and shall continue the procedure in all other respects.

Of the Expiration of the Procedure

1)When the procedure is paralyzed for more than six months due to a cause exclusively attributable to the interested party who promoted it or to the Administration that initiated it, on its own motion or by complaint, expiration (caducidad) shall occur and its archiving shall be ordered, unless it concerns the case provided for in the final paragraph of article 339 of this Code.
2)Expiration of the procedure (caducidad del procedimiento) initiated at the request of a party shall not proceed when the interested party has ceased to act because positive or negative silence has occurred, or when the case file is ready for the final act to be issued.
3)The expiration of the administrative procedure (caducidad del procedimiento administrativo) does not extinguish the right of the parties; but the procedures are considered as not having been pursued, for the purposes of interrupting the statute of limitations.

(Thus amended by subsection 10) of article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006)

Of Appeals

Of Ordinary Appeals

Ordinary appeals shall be the motion for reconsideration (revocatoria or reposición) and the appeal (apelación).

The appeal for review (revisión) shall be extraordinary.

1. No appeals shall be admissible within the summary procedure, except when it concerns the rejection ad portas of the petition, the denial of the hearing to conclude the procedure, and the final act.

2. If the appealable act emanates from an inferior, only the appeal (apelación) shall be admissible; if it emanates from the head of the hierarchy, the motion for reconsideration (revocatoria) shall be admissible.

3. When it concerns the final act of the head of the hierarchy, the rules concerning the motion for reconsideration (reposición) of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo shall apply(*).

(*)(Thus amended the preceding sub-section by subsection 12) of article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006) 4. The motion for reconsideration (revocatoria) or appeal (apelación), when they are admissible, shall be governed by the same rules applicable within the ordinary procedure.

1. In the ordinary procedure, ordinary appeals shall be admissible only against the act that initiates it, against the act that denies the oral hearing or any evidence, and against the final act.

2. The motion for reconsideration (revocatoria) against the final act of the head of the hierarchy shall be governed by the rules of the motion for reconsideration (reposición) of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo(*).

(*)(Thus amended the preceding sub-section by subsection 12) of article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006) 3. A procedural act that indefinitely suspends or makes impossible the continuation of the procedure shall also be considered final.

1. Ordinary appeals must be filed within a period of three days in the case of the final act and twenty-four hours in all other cases, both periods counted from the last communication of the act.

2. When it concerns the denial of evidence in the hearing, they may be established during the act, in which case the evidence and reasons for the appeal may be offered there or within the respective periods indicated in this article.

1. Appeals may also be filed by recording them in the minutes of the respective notification.

2. It is optional to use both ordinary appeals or only one of them, but any appeal filed after the periods set in the preceding article shall be inadmissible.

3. If both appeals are filed at the same time, the appeal (apelación) shall be processed once the motion for reconsideration (revocatoria) has been declared without merit.

1. Ordinary appeals must be filed before the body directing the procedure.

2. In the case of the appeal (apelación), that body shall limit itself to summoning the parties before the superior and shall forward the case file without admitting or rejecting the appeal, attaching a report on the grounds of the appeal.

1. In the administrative procedure, there shall be in all cases a single instance of appeal (alzada), regardless of the origin of the appealed act.

2. The appellate body (órgano de la alzada) shall always be the one called upon to exhaust the administrative remedy (vía administrativa), in accordance with article 126.

1. When deciding the appeal (apelación), it shall rule on its admissibility and, if admissible, shall confirm, modify, or revoke the challenged act.

2. The appeal may be resolved even to the detriment of the appellant when it concerns absolute nullity.

3. If there is any defect of form giving rise to nullity, the case file shall be reverted to the moment when the defect was committed, unless cure or ratification is possible.

1. The directing body must resolve the motion for reconsideration (revocatoria) within eight days following its presentation, but it may reserve its resolution for the final act, in which case it must so communicate to the parties.

2. The appeal (apelación) must be resolved within eight days following receipt of the case file.

Of the Appeal for Review

1. An appeal for review (recurso de revisión) may be filed before the head of the respective Administration against those final, firm acts in which any of the following circumstances occur:

a)When issuing them, a manifest error of fact was incurred that appears from the very documents incorporated into the case file; b) When documents of essential value for the resolution of the matter appear, which were unknown when the resolution was issued or their contribution to the case file was impossible at that time; c) When documents or testimonies declared false by a firm judicial judgment, prior or subsequent to the act, have essentially influenced the act, provided that, in the first case, the interested party was unaware of the declaration of falsehood; and d) When the act was issued as a consequence of prevarication, bribery, violence, or other fraudulent scheme and this has been so declared by virtue of a judicial judgment.

a)In the first case of the preceding article, within the year following the notification of the challenged act; b) In the second case, within three months counted from the discovery of the documents or from the possibility of contributing them; and c) In the other cases, within the year following the knowledge of the firm judgment that supports them.

Of the Exhaustion of the Administrative Remedy

1. To issue the act that exhausts the administrative remedy (vía administrativa), it shall be essential for the issuing body to previously consult the Legal Advisor of the corresponding Administration.

2. The act that exhausts the remedy must include express mention of the consultation and the opinion of the consulted body, as well as, where appropriate, the reasons why it departs from the opinion, if the latter is not binding.

3. The consultation must be evacuated within six days following its receipt, without suspending the period for resolving.

8508 of April 28, 2006)

Of the Complaint

1. At any time, a complaint may be filed against procedural defects and, especially, those involving paralysis, violation of mandatory periods, or omission of procedures that can be corrected before the definitive resolution of the matter.

2. The complaint shall be filed before the hierarchical superior of the authority or official presumed responsible for the infraction or fault, citing the infringed precept and attaching a simple copy of the writing.

3. In no case shall the respective procedure be suspended.

4. The resulting resolution shall be notified to the complainant within a period of fifteen days, counted from when the complaint was formulated.

5. No appeal shall be admissible against such resolution.

Of Special Procedures SOLE CHAPTER Of the Drafting of Provisions of a General Nature

1. Decentralized entities shall be granted a hearing on draft provisions of a general nature that may affect them.

2. Entities representative of interests of a general or corporate nature affected by the provision shall be granted the opportunity to present their views, within a period of ten days, unless reasons of public interest or urgency duly recorded in the preliminary draft oppose this.

3. When, in the judgment of the Executive Branch or the Ministry, the nature of the provision so advises, the preliminary draft shall be submitted for public information, during the period indicated in each case.

1. Drafts that must be submitted for the approval of the Council of Government shall be sent eight days in advance to the other convened Ministers, so that they may formulate the pertinent observations.

2. In cases of urgency, as assessed by the Council itself, the procedure of the preceding paragraph may be shortened or omitted.

FINAL PROVISIONS Common Final Provisions SOLE CHAPTER

1. This law is of public order and repeals any laws that oppose it, with the limitations and exceptions established in the following articles.

2. In case of doubt, its principles and rules shall prevail over those of any other provisions of equal or lower rank.

3. They shall also be criteria of interpretation for the entire administrative legal order of the country.

1. Book One shall apply to the entire Administration, once this law enters into force, provided that such application does not produce retroactive effect.

2. Valid acts or situations arising previously shall continue to be governed by prior legislation, except as to their pending effects, which shall conform to this law, insofar as it is compatible with their nature.

3. The general principles of the same Book One shall prevail in all cases.

1. Book Two shall govern, from its entry into force, for every administrative procedure, even those pending resolution or appeal, with the exceptions and limitations of article 371(*).

(*)(Note from Sinalevi: Should be understood as 367, as this law does not contain article 371. The exceptions and limitations referred to in this sub-section are contemplated in article 367) 2. However, the terms or periods for pending proceedings or for the final resolution shall be counted from the entry into force of this law, as long as this does not imply an extension or enlargement of those established in prior legislation, in which case the latter shall govern.

1. All prior provisions are repealed that establish or regulate administrative procedures of a general nature, or whose specialty does not arise from the nature of the matter they govern.

2. Excepted from the application of this law, regarding administrative procedure, are:

a)Expropriations; b) Bidding processes and tenders (concursos y licitaciones); c) Contracts of the Administration that have it established by law; d) Tax matters that have it established by law; e) Matters concerning personnel, both public and labor, regulated by law or by autonomous labor regulation, as appropriate, except as to officials excluded from those provisions for reasons of rank or trust; f) Procedures in matters of Public Registries; g) Procedures relating to the approval, execution, and settlement of budgets, and other financial and accounting oversight procedures by the Contraloría General de la República, when they are regulated; and h) Others that the Executive Branch determines by decree, within three months following the enactment of this law, when there exist reasons equally justified as those of the preceding sub-sections, and provided they are regulated by law.

3. The cases excepted in the preceding paragraph shall continue to be governed by their special procedural rules.

1. Other laws, regulations, and procedural rules existing for special matters remain in force, but as complementary and subordinate to this law, provided they are necessary by reason of the specific nature of such matters, as determined by Decree of the Executive Branch.

2. Likewise, the administrative procedural provisions contained in the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo remain in force(*).

(*)(Thus amended the preceding sub-section by subsection 12) of article 200 of the Código Procesal Contencioso-Administrativo, Law No. 8508 of April 28, 2006)

1. The Executive Branch shall regulate this law.

2. The lack of regulation shall not be an obstacle to the application of this law.

3. The general regulations of procedure for the entire Administration or for each of the Ministries or administrative entities must be enacted within a period of six months from the entry into force of this law.

4. The same period shall govern as to the provisions necessary to adapt the administrative organization to this law.

5. The provisions of the Executive Branch in accordance with this and the two preceding articles shall be considered general for the purposes of this law and of the Law Regulating the Contentious-Administrative Jurisdiction.

This law shall enter into force six months after its publication.

Presidential House.- San José, on the second day of the month of May of 1978.

Date of generation: 6/3/2026 06:04:53 Go to beginning of document

General Law of Public AdministrationLey General de la Administración Pública

Artículo 1 — The Public Administration shall be constituted by the State and the other public entities, each with legal personality and capacity under public and private law.

Artículo 2

Artículo 3

Artículo 5

Artículo 6

Artículo 7

Artículo 8 — The administrative legal system shall be understood as integrated by the unwritten rules necessary to guarantee a balance between the efficiency of the Administration and the dignity, freedom, and other fundamental rights of the individual.

Artículo 9

Artículo 10

Artículo 11

Artículo 12

Artículo 13

Artículo 14

Artículo 15

Artículo 16

Artículo 17 — Discretion (discrecionalidad) shall be limited by the rights of the individual against it, unless a legal text provides otherwise.

Artículo 18

Artículo 19

Artículo 20 — The precepts of this law shall not cease to be applied for lack of regulation; rather, this shall be supplemented, unless expressly provided otherwise, in the same form and order in which the written legal system is integrated.

Artículo 21

Artículo 22

Artículo 23

Artículo 24

Artículo 25

Artículo 26

Artículo 27

Artículo 28

Artículo 29

Artículo 30

Artículo 31 — The President of the Republic or, in their case, whoever substitutes them, shall preside over the Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno), with all the powers necessary for the fulfillment of its functions.

Artículo 32

Artículo 33

Artículo 34

Artículo 35

Artículo 36

Artículo 37

Artículo 38

Artículo 39 — Only the following agreements may be adopted by a qualified majority of two-thirds of the votes present:

Artículo 40

Artículo 41

Artículo 42 — The agreements of the Council shall be executory and communicable from the moment they are adopted, unless an appeal for review (recurso de revisión) is filed against them, in which case they shall become final with the decision rejecting the appeal.

Artículo 43

Artículo 44 — An appeal for reconsideration (recurso de reposición) may be filed against the agreements of the Government Council (Consejo de Gobierno) that harm legitimate interests and subjective rights; all in accordance with the Code of Contentious-Administrative Procedure.

Artículo 45

Artículo 46

Artículo 47

Artículo 48

Artículo 49

Artículo 50 — The collegiate organs shall appoint a secretary, who shall have the following powers and duties:

Artículo 51

Artículo 52

Artículo 53

Artículo 54

Artículo 55

Artículo 56

Artículo 57

Artículo 58

Artículo 59

Artículo 60

Artículo 61

Artículo 62 — When a norm attributes a power or purpose to an entity or body composed of several offices, without further specification, the office with the most similar function shall be competent, and, if there is none, the one of higher grade, or the one that the latter designates.

Artículo 63

Artículo 64 — Competence by reason of hierarchical grade and the corresponding powers shall depend on the position of the body within the hierarchical line.

Artículo 65

Artículo 66

Artículo 67

Artículo 69 — The body that declines its competence may adopt the urgent measures necessary to avoid serious or irreparable harm to the Administration or to individuals, communicating this to the competent body.

Artículo 70 — Competence shall be exercised by the holder of the respective body, except in cases of delegation, avocation, substitution, or subrogation, under the conditions and limits indicated by this law.

Artículo 71

Artículo 72 — Every conflict between bodies or Ministries must be resolved within one month after it is raised.

Artículo 73

Artículo 75 — The inferior may not sustain a conflict of competence with a superior.

Artículo 78 — When a conflict of competence or of any other nature arises between a Ministry and a decentralized institution, or among these, the decision shall correspond to the President of the Republic.

Artículo 79

Artículo 80 — If it is the State that raises the conflict, the same preceding procedure shall be followed.

Artículo 81 — When an interested party deems an administrative body incompetent, it may require the body at any time to declare its lack of competence.

Artículo 82

Artículo 83

Artículo 84