Informality in the actions of the administration in exercising the public function of urban planning: an expansive expression of the principle of local autonomy

Abstract

In the current constitutional order, the informal administrative action (IAA) makes its way in different special areas, such as in the exercise of the public function of urban planning, whenever the legal provisions of the general administrative sphere that regulate the various actions of the administration are insufficient and do not provide the inputs required in each particular case. Therefore, it is proposed to demonstrate that the IAA is a modality that allows the exercise of the public function of urban planning in cases that are not legally formalized, since it is supported by the principle of administrative autonomy, a demonstration that is carried out through a qualitative, hermeneutic methodology, with case studies and the use of the documentary technique. As a result, the validity of the IAA in the exercise of the public function of urban planning is demonstrated, but with differentiated levels of recognition and effectiveness, since some of the assumptions where it is viable have not been used because the territorial entities are limited by the incidences of the central administration, revealing the tensions between centrality and decentralization, and of legality and the criterion of the functions and purposes that govern the administrative function in the Social and Democratic State of Law (SDSL).