Electronic notification: legal regime and practical problems

Abstract

In the administrative procedure, acts are issued by the administration which, due to their legal relevance for the interested parties, must be the object of a communication with a content and formalities that must ensure, with all certainty, that they have come to their knowledge, from which moment they produce effects. This need is met by notification, which for this reason has become an extraordinarily important step in the administrative procedure. Notification has traditionally been carried out on paper and has always been regulated from this point of view by the different administrative procedure laws. However, the implementation in recent years of the so-called e-administration has led to the need for notification by electronic means, which has obliged the legislator to establish its legal regime. Currently, Law 39/2015, of 1 October, on the common administrative procedure of public administrations, regulates, as it could not be otherwise, notification by electronic means, which has been developed by the Regulation of action and operation of the public sector by electronic means, approved by Royal Decree 203/2021, of 30 March. The purpose of this article is to study the legal regime of electronic notification contained in state regulations, as well as to analyse the main problems posed by its practical application, paying special attention to the most important doctrinal contributions and jurisprudential pronouncements that have been dictated in this area.