Adversarial Principle in the Administrative Adjudication With Emphasis on the Procedure of Administrative Justice Tribunal

The essence of "Adversarial Principle" (Principe de la Contradiction) as a leading procedural principle is the right to be heard or giving the litigants of notice and opportunity to debate. The adversarial principle requires that both parties should be entitled to the possibility of introducing their allegations and evidences, be informed at suitable time of the points invoked by the opposing party or inferred by the judge sua sponte and have the opportunity to challenge them. The notion of the principle has increasingly entered into the area of administrative procedure from the scope of civil procedure. The minimum requirements of the adversarial principle have been considered in the proceedings of administrative justice tribunal and by virtue of the tribunal control, it has been recognized in brief by exceptional jurisdictions. However, there are some uncertainties in the procedural code of administrative justice tribunal which may lead to the breach of adversarial principle. Finally, the right to be heard in the process of administrative decision-making has experienced a significant development in the advanced countries but no signal about the recognition of this right is seen in the Iranian administrative law.