THE LEGAL NATURE OF SOVEREIGN GUARANTEES: ONE LESS ADMINISTRATIVE CONTRACT?
THE LEGAL NATURE OF SOVEREIGN GUARANTEES: ONE LESS ADMINISTRATIVE CONTRACT?

Summary/Abstract: Public guarantees may be issued in various forms, as the applicable legal provisions are permissive enough to allow the use of private law forms of guarantees. In this context, the legal effects of public guarantees are much close to those of private law guarantees, and such similarity is also explaining their intensive use as forms of public support to economic activity. This study aims to analyse the legal nature of public guarantees on two levels: first, to determine whether public guarantees, especially those issued by public authorities, are contracts or administrative acts, concluding on their contractual nature in all cases, and, subsequently, to qualify such contract as being administrative or belonging to private law. Still, describing the public guarantee contract as a private law contract does not preclude the application of imperative public law norms concerning the issuance of the guarantee and the further action of the issuer.

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