Private law instruments of public administration activity: relevance and directions of scientific research

The article attempts to substantiate the conceptual rethinking and updating of scientific research on private law instruments in public administration. An attempt has been made to reconsider the essence and characteristics of private law instruments of public administration, taking into account existing theoretical developments of administrative law doctrine and current management practices. The authors propose to understand private law instruments of public administration as legal means through which public administration entities participate in private law relations aimed at achieving public interests via coordination, state support, or public-private partnerships based on contractual, property-related, or corporate forms of interaction. The following characteristics (features) of private law instruments of public administration have been identified: participation of public administration entities in private law relations on equal terms; a combination of imperative and dispositive principles with varying proportions of imperative and dispositive elements depending on the type of instrument; preservation of the public-law status of the public administration entity; targeted orientation of activities towards achieving public interests through private law mechanisms; application of private law instruments focused on the implementation of public administration objectives; the legal nature of actions of public administration entities being coordinative or contractual. It has been emphasized that the generalized analysis of the existing legal literature and legislation indicates the necessity for further doctrinal developments in terms of private law instruments. Despite extensive research on specific forms of public-private partnership, administrative contracts, state aid, etc., modern studies still do not cover private law instruments as an integral legal institution with a comprehensive system of features and criteria for their application. Thus, the authors’ proposed rethinking of their legal nature and classification represents only the next attempt to update this significant direction within administrative law science.