Administrative Legal Criteria for the Admissibility of the Technological Exercise of Public Authority Powers: Discretion and the Individualization Requirement as Limits of Automation

Abstract

The subject of the study is the administrative legal criteria that determine the admissible model of the technological exercise of a public authority power, and the typology of powers built on these criteria. The article examines the formalizability of legally significant actions, the discretionary element of a power, the individualization requirement in needs assessment, the statutory requirements for the form of the exercise of a power, and the risk-based approach in control and supervisory activities. Particular attention is paid to the limits of automation that apply even to bound competence, including agentic artificial intelligence systems. The normative and empirical basis covers legislation and the practice of social protection and social security bodies. The methodology rests on the formal legal and legal dogmatic methods, the systemic approach and legal modelling; statistical processing of departmental reporting and the analysis of judicial practice of courts of general jurisdiction and commercial courts were applied. The article develops a system of four criteria for the admissibility of the technological exercise of a power: the formalizability of legally significant actions, the discretionary element, the individualization requirement, and the statutory requirements for the form of exercise; the rule of their cumulative application is substantiated, each criterion being derived from one of the properties of the administrative legal invariant of a power. Discretion and the individualization requirement are shown to be independent legal, rather than technical, limits of automation that operate even under bound competence. A typology of powers of determinate, partially evaluative and evaluative content is built, remaining stable across changes of technologies, including agentic artificial intelligence systems. The results are applicable to determining the admissible level of automation of specific powers and to designing the procedures for their exercise in the automatic and proactive modes in the sphere of social protection and social security.