The Republic of Angola overhauled the legal framework governing administrative activity, which had been in force without significant amendments for almost 30 years, through the enactment of three structuring laws in the field of Public Law.
 
With a view to implementing the general principle set out in Article 75 of the Constitution of the Republic of Angola, which establishes that the State and other public legal persons are jointly and severally civilly liable for actions and omissions of their bodies, office holders, agents and officials in the performance of the administrative, legislative and jurisdictional functions, or as a result thereof, the National Assembly, approved the Legal Regime on Extracontratual Civil Liability of the State and Other Public Legal Persons ("LRSL") by means of Law No. 30/22, of 29 August 2022.
 
This truly innovative statute within the Angolan legal framework aims at materializing said Constitutional principle, by densifying the different forms of extracontractual civil liability arising from acts or omissions of the administrative, legislative and jurisdictional functions, and imposing the duty to repair the damage to individuals as a result thereof. The obligation to indemnify seeks first and foremost to reconstitute the situation that would have existed had the event or omission requiring remedy not occurred (reconstitution in natura), payment of compensation in cash only occurring in those circumstances in which a natural reconstitution is not possible, or in cases in which it does not fully remedy the damage caused or is overly burdensome for the party liable to pay the compensation. The LRSL incorporates the modalities of (i) liability for unlawful acts and (ii) liability for risk and, in the context of liability for damages arising from poor administration of justice, it provides for (iii) the duty to indemnify the aggrieved party for violation of the right to a judicial decision in a timely manner, (iv) the notion of liability for miscarriage of justice, as well as (v) the rules applicable for purposes of determining the liability of Judicial Magistrates and of the Public Prosecutor's Office. The new legal regime also introduces the modality of public liability for damages arising from acts or omissions resulting from the performance of the legislative function, as well as the notion of liability for lawful acts (compensation for sacrifice). Law No. 30/22, of 29 August 2022, which does not require further regulation, came into force on the date of gazetting.
 
In the context of administrative activity, to align the rules governing the conduct of the Public Administration with constitutional and legal requirements and the demands of proximity with and response to interested persons, a new Code of Administrative Procedure ("CAP") was also approved, by means of Law No. 31/22, of 30 August 2022, which will come into force within 180 days from gazetting, i.e. on 26 February 2023.

This statute, repealing the regime previously in force which dated back to 1995 (Decree-Law No. 16-A/95, of 15 December 1995), lays down the principles to be complied with in the performance of administrative activity and the rules and formalities concerning the formation, manifestation and execution of the will of the public administration in the pursuance of the public interest, in abidance by the subjective rights and legally protected interests of individuals and legal persons. In addition to adopting a broad notion of interested person, widening its reach, the new CAP brings about a overhauling of the administrative procedure in force thus far and which will alter the functioning of the Angolan public administration (and any other entity carrying out administrative functions, irrespective of its nature) in the relationship with the citizens. The amendments now approved cover all the administrative activity and include: the introduction of a wide range of new general principles; the amendment and densification of the rules for determining the remits of bodies, their formation and expression of their will; the possibility to establish agreements or partnerships in cases where the intervention of multiple bodies in the performance of acts is necessary, to standardize and render more efficient and effective their joint action; specific rules for administrative regulations; amendments to administrative remedies (administrative complaints and administrative appeals), covering rules on the breach of the duty to decide; the elimination of the concept of the tacit rejection; distinct rules on contracts entered into by the public administration, which complement those already set forth in the Public Contracts Law; and the densification of the rules on the enforcement of administrative acts.
 
Finally, a new Code of Administrative Litigation Procedure ("CALP") was also approved, by means of Law No. 33/22, of 1 September 2022, to ensure the principle of full and effective protection of the fundamental rights of interested persons and the need to affirm an administrative procedural law which, on the one hand, effectively guarantees the protection of subjective rights and interests of interested persons and, on the other hand, promotes effective control of administrative legality.
 
The need to adapt the administrative procedural law to a market economy and to a rule-of-law state required a real break-up from the paradigm until now in force, predicated solely on the notion of litigation appeal for annulment and on the precautionary process of suspension of effects of administrative acts, which proved unsuitable for ensuring the principle of effective jurisdictional protection laid down in Article 29 of the Angolan Constitution.
 
The significant transformation now occurred imply inter alia the broadening of the concept of interested persons and, consequently, of the procedural standing to commence and/or intervene in legal proceedings, as well as the introduction of broader and new procedural means and their respective procedural regimes, such as the procedures for challenging administrative regulations, of injunction to perform an act due, of contractual and extracontractual civil liability of the State, for challenging administrative contraventions or transgressions, in parallel with the inclusion of precautionary measures in the administrative sphere, hitherto essentially non-existent or of limited practical application. Among many other originalities, one should highlight the possibility of review of legality of rules and no longer only of administrative acts, including their omission, the introduction of important principles such as the “prevalence of material justice” and “pro actione”, directed at the search for material truth (verdade material), as essential element and granting upon judges mechanisms to achieve it, the general principle of possibility of cumulation of claims, as well as the establishment of procedural rules intended to ensure the exercise of the right to class action and public action, and specific rules on arbitration.
 
The CALP will come into force 180 days after gazetting, i.e. on 28 February 2023. Pending proceedings will from such date be subject to the new code, judges being responsible for making the procedural adaptations required to that effect.

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