“Once again, we witness a distortion of reality: judges are identified as obstacles to justice when, in fact, we are the ones who ensure daily that the system does not collapse due to failures by others. The examples from AIMA speak for themselves. Thousands of artificial cases clog the courts, not because citizens litigate excessively, but because the Administration fails in its duties. It is the judiciary that is unjustly exposed to criticisms of inefficiency,” reads a note from ASJP sent to its members on Friday.
In the same note, ASJP rejects that judges be held responsible: “We will not accept that judges continue to be held responsible for dysfunctions that are not theirs.”
This note stems from two documents sent to the Government, one to the Minister of State Reform, Gonçalo Matias, and another to the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, in which judges request intervention in light of the “unsustainable situation experienced in the Administrative Court of Lisbon Circle (TACL), resulting from the accumulation of tens of thousands of cases directly related to AIMA.”
In the letter to Minister Gonçalo Matias, ASJP emphasizes that these cases “originate almost exclusively from AIMA’s operational failures, forcing citizens to turn to the courts to obtain simple scheduling or basic administrative acts,” generating “artificial litigation” that congests the competent court in Lisbon and “diverts essential resources” from other areas.
The judges argue that AIMA “should be an absolute priority” in state reform, “given its direct impact on courts’ overload,” and they request that the reform of this body “be handled with urgent and differentiated importance,” as the current situation “constitutes a real threat to the functioning of administrative justice, seriously endangering its responsiveness and citizens’ trust in institutions.”
To Minister Leitão Amaro, who oversees AIMA, ASJP reiterates previous warnings, pointing out the “devastating effects” on justice from the accumulation of cases originating from state administrative failures, namely the “generalized delays in highly relevant social and economic processes” in areas such as urbanism, the environment, or public procurement, in addition to impacts on the “perception of justice inefficiency.”
“The repetition of this alert reveals the urgency of intervention. It is imperative that the Government, through the ministry you lead, adopt concrete and immediate measures to remedy AIMA’s failures and reestablish normal administrative functioning, lest we continue to witness the degradation of the administrative jurisdiction’s response capability,” the judges appeal, emphasizing the “priority nature” of the issue.
In the note sent to members, ASJP positions itself “at the forefront, demanding concrete solutions from the Government and publicly denouncing these situations.”
“Our duty is to judge with independence, impartiality, and rigor—not to replace administrative bodies incapable of fulfilling their mission. It is time to assert clearly that the dignity of the judicial function is not negotiable, nor should it be dragged by superficial perceptions,” it concludes.
