El mito de la inexistencia de plazos fatales para la administración y el "decaimiento" en los procedimientos administrativos

Supreme Court jurisprudence in Chile has hit upon an apparent solution to the excessive (and much criticized) delays characterizing the action of agencies of the State administration: the concept of “decaimiento†or the lapsing of administrative proceedings because of such delays. The present article analyses this jurisprudence and advances the view that delays in administrative proceedings continue because judges and jurists have held to their belief in the legal myth that there are no real time limits on administrative action. The author argues that these exorbitant and illegal delays in administrative proceedings continue unchecked even though a law explicitly regulating them has existed since 2003. In the author’s opinion, the legally sound option would be the one any democracy might be expected to choose: apply the law as it stands. As it is, the decaimiento thesis and the belief that there are no real time limits on administrative action are doing damage to fundamental values of the system of administrative law in Chile.