Myndigheters möjligheter att ändra sina beslut – legalitetsprincipen som komplement till principen om gynnande besluts negativa rättskraft

Sammanfattning: This essay is about the opportunities for authorities to change their decisions. The aim is to investigate the extent to which authorities can change their decisions, and to examine whether the principle of legality restricts the opportunities to change decisions to a greater extent than what is followed from the principle of legitimate expectations. The principle of legality in administrative law requires authorities to handle within the binding norms, calls for laws and other rules to be clear and contains restrictions on the use of retroactivity. The principle is examined on the basis of both Swedish and European law (EU and ECHR), but no decisive differences can be shown. The Swedish principle of legitimate expectations is of great importance for the understanding of changed decisions since it implicates that a favorable decision may not be changed. However, there are three exceptions from this principle in the Administrative Procedure Act. Thus, favorable decisions can be changed when provided with a revocation statement, when imperative security reasons is at hand, and when the individual has obtained the decision by false information. In addition to this, there are also possibilities to change favorable decisions that are not codified in any act. I discuss a few of these; the execution of desicions, changed situations, new law and its applicability on old decisions, and time-limited decisions. Also the EU has an impact on the opportunity for Swedish authorities to change their decisions. In the last chapter, I analyse in what extent the principle of legality restricts changing of favorable decisions, and thereby conclude that in particular the fact that authorities must handle within the bindning norms sets up some limits on the possibilities of changing decisions. Compared to the principle of legitimate expectations, the principle of legalitity restricts the opportunities to change decisions in a more comprehensive way. Though, authorities can still change favorable decisions to a quite large extent.