The Ombudsman: An Alternative to the Judiciary?

Abstract

This part of the book provides a comparative view about the position of the national Ombudsmen as alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. As it deals with those alternative dispute mechanisms to the court proceedings that exist in the sphere of public law, only the public services Ombudsmen, Ombudsmen dealing with the complaints against the state administration, mentioned in the previous national chapters, are described here. Undoubtedly, also the private services Ombudsmen and the hybrid Ombudsmen can be an alternative to the judicial procedures, but due to their character, the following pages do not give them much space. This chapter analyzes the data received through the national experiences included in this book, though for the overview sake it also, on several occasions, refers to the Ombudsman institutions that are not expressly noted in the national chapters.

This chapter gives an overview of the most outstanding strengths and possible weaknesses of an Ombudsman as a dispute resolution mechanism in comparison with the position of the administrative judiciary as traditional dispute resolution mechanisms. This part also analyzes a position of individual national Ombudsmen among the checks and balances of the power of state administration. This comparative part points to different Ombudsman models and normative standards of the researched national Ombudsman institutions and their possible development. Last but not least, it discusses whether the Ombudsmen are in reality, in the practice of the researched countries, an alternative to the proceedings of their administrative judiciary.