The doctoral thesis deals fundamentally with the question of what legal requirements are in place with regard to the communication relationship between administration and citizens in social law proceedings. The thesis consists mainly of two parts: The theoretical part first discusses how the concept of communication can be understood from a jurisprudential perspective. Then, the functions of communication between administration and citizens are presented in the context of the administrative procedure. On this basis, it will be investigated, which peculiarities exist in social benefit law that could lead to a greater need for communication between administration and citizens. In particular, three aspects are examined, namely (a) the duty of the authority to investigate the facts, which depends to a large extent on the citizen's duty to cooperate; (b) the recipient's participation in the procedure, the aim of which is to influence the decision on the merits; and (c) the administration's duty to inform citizens so that they can assert their social rights lawfully and appropriately.
In the comparative law part, the legal design of the communication relationship between the administration and citizens in social law proceedings in Germany and Taiwan is presented. The provisions include both the general part of (social) administrative procedural law and the specific branches of social law. Different types of communicative procedural rights are presented, which serve different purposes during the procedure. Finally, it is examined whether the existing provisions take sufficient account of the functions of communication and the specific features of social law.
