Following the constitutional and political reforms in Central and Eastern Europe of the last decade, the time has now come for the whole-scale reform of public administration and the creation of a professional civil service. What is needed is a clear sense of the objectives to be achieved by the administration; and the provision of adequate resources to perform the tasks of public administration. In addition, and perhaps most importantly of all, there must be a sound legal basis for public administration.
Recognizing these realities, this book examines administrative law and administrative institutions in Central and Eastern Europe. In a series of case studies, discussing each country in the region in turn, it looks at the ways in which a range of administrative decisions are reached and at how the citizens affected by them are treated.
The material for each of the fourteen chapters was collected by a person or persons native to the respective country.

Denis J. Galligan, BCL, MA, is Professor of Law at the Law Department of the University of Oxford, and Director of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford. Daniel Smilov is a comparative constitutional lawyer and political scientist. He is Associate Professor of Political Theory at the Political Science Department, University of Sofia; Programme Director at the Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, and Recurrent Visiting Professor of Comparative Constitutional Law at the Central European University, Budapest.