Hesitantly towards mutual recognition of “vaccination passports”. A survey on potential ubiquity in administrative law

Abstract

The problem of potential ubiquity emerged in administrative law because of transboundary circulation of various certificates, licences and permits. These documents, approving certain facts, may appear before an administrative authority of another State. Thus, the applicable regime of public law must qualify the legal consequences of such documents in the realm of the applicable administrative law. This article aims to discuss this problem with regard to the challenges arising in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemics. Prospective introduction of “immunity certificates” and “vaccination passports” in various jurisdictions and the need to establish mutual recognition of such “passports” and “certificates” is the subject of attention. The article points out existence of several dogmatic approaches to the fact that foreign administrations have either approved a fact, or granted a right. Some of these dogmatic approaches have been reflected in the written law. However, at the same time, in theory, other solutions than those provided by the current legal framework would also be theoretically possible. The importance of these theoretical considerations is demonstrated regarding the very current discussions on the introduction of “immunity certificates” and “vaccination passports”.