Lexipedia

Coercive administrative measures

Administrative tools used to enforce duties or restore lawful conditions, subject to legal basis and proportionality.

Coercive administrative measures allow authorities to secure compliance with public-law duties without ordinary civil enforcement. In Switzerland they may include substitute performance at the debtor’s expense, administrative fines where legally provided, direct compulsion, seizure, closure or removal orders. Such measures require a sufficient legal basis, public interest and proportionality. The authority must normally warn the person concerned and choose the least intrusive effective means, unless urgency or danger justifies immediate action. Judicial review remains available according to procedural law.