The legal nature of the public function

• Author: Diaconu Catalin Stefan - Diaconu Elena - Suiu Ion
• Position: Expert accountant, C.E.C.C.A.R., Rm. Vâlcea - Legal adviser
• Pages: 81-86

THE LEGAL NATURE OF THE PUBLIC FUNCTION

Ph.D Elena Diaconu

Expert accountant, C.E.C.C.A.R., Rm. Vâlcea

diaconuush@yahoo.com

Candidate to Ph.D Ion Şuiu

nelusuiu@yahoo.com

Cătălin Ştefan Diaconu

Legal adviser

Abstract: In this paper we propose to make an analysis at the world level of the juridical

norms regarding the public function and the civil servant.

The public function is a juridical situation, that is a an unitary and interdependent complex of

rights and obligations which devolve to his keeper to whom it confers his own real statute and not

just a content of juridical report, formed between the civil servant and his superior or between the

first and the one who is under his administration, in which the parts are distinguished only through

the opposability, which can sometimes be mutual, of the rights and obligations which devolve in

their quality as participants to the juridical relationship

Key words : civil servant, public function, administration, the statute of the civil servant

.

The concept of public function has traditionally been laid down as a fundamental concept of

public law, especially of administrative law, and it is bound to the concept of activity, authority,

organ etc. An organ o state or a public authority, in general, as a structure, is made up of three

elements: the competence, material and financial means and the personnel, and the personnel, at its

turn, is structured on divisions, hierarchical positions and lines, of which only certain of them

appear as public positions. The holder of a public position, in a generic approach, is called a public

worker.

These ideas represent a constant o the public law doctrine or the administrative science, and

that’s the reason why public function appears to be one of the favourite elements of corporatists’

and a criteria of measuring the statute laws of countries integrated in a political form as The

European Union.

There are traditions of public function in every western country which shouldn’t be

mistaken by the issue of a general statute. It is stated that the first country to have adopted a general

statute of the public function is Spain, through The 1852 Law, followed by Luxembourg, through a

law issued in 1872 and Denmark, in 1899.

In Italy, the first statute of the civil servant was adopted on the 22

nd

of November 1908 and in the

Republic of Ireland the first law related to the public function dates from 1922. Holland and

Belgium adopted the first law about civil servants in 1929, and The general regulations of the civil

servants in the Kingdom appears in 1931.

In Germany, which has traditions regarding the public function ever since Middle Ages, the

first law related to the general encoding of the public function regulations was adopted by the

national socialist régime in 1937, A Bavarian Code of public function has existed since the

beginning of the 19

th

century.

In France, the first statute of the public function was adopted by the Vichy regime.

Greece adopted the first Statute o the civil servant in 1951, inspired by the French statute, the

German law, but also by the English law of the public function.

In our country there is a rich tradition regarding the regulation of all aspects related to the system of

the function in the state administration through a statute.