Summary

State supervision and administrative supervision are legal institutes with seemingly rather different overall subject matter and settings. The definition of state supervision is arranged in subsection 2 (4) of the Law Enforcement Act as the activity of a law enforcement agency with the aim of preventing a threat, ascertaining and countering a threat or eliminating a disturbance. Pursuant to subsection 751 (1) of the Government of the Republic Act, Administrative Supervision denotes control on one administrative authority over legality and, in cases prescribed by law, the actions of another administrative authority. State Supervision is the activity of administrative authorities (law enforcement agencies) in controlling the actions of non-administrative persons. Administrative Supervision is per definitionem internal control. Even though the performance of both forms of supervision is regulated by administrative law, the right to state supervision belongs, as a part of the maintenance of law and order, to the specific component of administrative law; however, administrative supervision is a part of the right of administrative organisation, which belongs to the general part of administrative law. Yet, once a deeper look is taken at the origin and content of administrative supervision, what quickly becomes evident is that it has important connections between the maintenance of law and order and the state supervision procedure.

This article deals with the concept, contents and problems of administrative supervision, setting its commonalities and discrepancies with state supervision proceedings as the axis. The article does not seek to create a comprehensive picture of the modern-day nature of administrative supervision in Estonia, also lacking a deeper comparison with the analogous legal institutions of other countries. On the contrary, the author emphasises that (once again similar to state supervision) the definition of administrative supervision is quite broad and covers several very specific fields (for example, administrative supervision performed over local government units or a legal person governed by private law or the supervision of administrative assignments handed over to a natural person), which would be worthy of separate treatment.