On 8 June 2021, in an appeal in the interest of the law, the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided that the exception of illegality of the administrative act may also be invoked for those administrative acts issued before 6 January 2005, the date of entry into force of Law 554/2004 on contentious administrative matters.
The decision (no.9 of 7 June 2021, in case file no. 3375/1/2020) put an end to a non-unitary practice of the courts. Thus, until now, some courts dismissed as inadmissible the exception of illegality of administrative acts adopted before the entry into force of the Law on contentious administrative matters. That happened although the doctrine has almost consistently argued that the exception of illegality, though not expressly regulated before Law no. 554/2004, was available to the litigant parties in cases in which administrative acts were invoked, representing an indirect verification of the lawfulness of such acts.
