Interdisciplinary Aspects of Licensing Economic Activities in the Depths of the Earth

Abstract

This article analyzes licenses issued by resolution of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, allowing persons exercising freedom of economic activity to use traditional hydrocarbon resources found in the earth‘s depths, i.e. to extract oil, as well as the constitutional and administrative aspects of its regulation, interpretation, and application. The subject of this article is the controversial and dualistic nature of the basis for licensing economic activity by a collegial government resolution, both as part of the exercise of state power and as part of the public administration system in the context of current issues in administrative justice. The aim of the study is to examine, from a systematic and interdisciplinary perspective, the regulation of economic activity in the subsoil in terms of the initiation of licenses issued by the Government and the possible protracted coordination or final non-issuance in the context of public administration and the exercise of state power. The outcome of the multi-stage procedure for initiating and coordinating the issuance of licenses attributable to public administration is decided at a government meeting. This analysis reveals the debatable and subsidiary nature of the regulation of social relations related to the use of hydrocarbon resources, determined by the specifics of constitutional and administrative law, both in terms of the collegial status of the Government enshrined in the Constitution and in the context of the concept of public administration defined in laws and the special administrative dispute examined by administrative courts in 2025. Based on legal doctrine and court practice, interpretations of the legal assessment of the operating models of entities operating in the field of public administration are made. The duality of the functions performed by the Government is discussed: the implementation of state political power and the exercise of public administration. The concept of political discretion is examined.