Administrative law
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WEEK 1:
Some definitions
• “The primary object of administrative law is to keep powers of gov’t within
legal bounds to protect their citizens against violations”. (Wade, 1921);
• “[…] [i]ncludes legal remedies available to a person who has been aggrieved”.
(Justice C.K. Thakker, Jain & Jain);
• Law dealing with the establishment, duties, and powers of and available
remedies against authorized agencies in the executive branch of the
government (Merriam-Webster);
No universal definition of administrative law
• Comparing administrative systems requires selection of criteria, the
combination of which allows the formation of types (Raadschelders &
Vigoda-Gadot, 2015);
• Demands recourse to social sciences, law, economics, etc. Requires
interdisciplinary approach in order to compare different systems.
Administrative law deals with the relationship between citizens and their State.
Isn’t that constitutional law? Not necessarily. Some overlap.
Two broad tasks:
• protecting individuals against an overreaching state
• Providing external checks that enhance the democratic accountability and
competence of the administration.
”It is logically impossible to distinguish administrative law from constitutional law
and all attemps to do so are artificially”. (Keith, 1982)
Administrative law: (bestuursrecht)
Created by agencies and departments of government on i.e., Conceptional things
about the law.
• National police;
• Environment;
• International trade;
• Tax
• Transport
Pubic administration forms the backbone of state functioning. Often deal with
offices that grant licenses, allocate benefits, run schools and clinics, and collect
taxes.
Independent regulatory agencies: Central backs and broadcasting commissions.
Monitoring organizations: audit agencies, ombudsmen and judicial review + the
democratic legitimacy of government policymaking.
Today, throughout the world, at the borders between the private and public
sectors and between nation states and transnational bodies, administrative law
,continues to be a realm of legal contestation and redefinition
Constitutional law: (staatsrecht)
Defines the power, role and structure of different entities within a state. Agencies
who make the law. Focus on the basic rights (rights to excists).
• Executive
• Legislature
• Judiciary
• Deals with the basic rights of its citizens
The Germans speak of administrative law as ‘concretized’ constitutional law, and
Americans often call it ‘applied’ constitutional law.
Agencies thus create, implement and enforce regulations. All the work that comes
with it falls under the term “Administrative Law”
Link between two: through the lens of political economy -> positive political theory
(PPT). PPT attempts to model state behavior in terms of the self-interest of the
actors involved. Some PPT takes the basic structure of government as given (f.e. a
presidential democracy that elects representatives through plurality rule in single-
member districts). Other work tries to explain the incentives for political acts to
create or to modify the constitutional structure of government.
Administrative Law:
Administrative independence: it means that a public entity has some degree of
separation form day-to-day political pressures. In US that independent agencies are
not completely independent.
Process and policy. Public agencies promulgate regulations for many different
purposes. They seek to correct market failures, protect rights, and distribute the
benefits of state actions to particular groups. Executive policymaking in
democracies raises issues of public legitimacy (this is the focus of administrative
law in US).
Administrative law cannot avoid confrontations with politics. Perhaps even more
than constitutional law, it frames the interaction between law and politics; it
provides the conceptual vocabulary for their transformation over time in response
to social change.
Administrative litigation (geschillen): ‘famous adage in French administrative law’:
huger l’administartion, c’est encore administer - to judge the administration Is still
to administer -> self-regulating.
Historians and jurist have long understood that this strong reading does not
comport well with reality.
This tension between administration and justice – between the policy prerogatives
of the state pursuing regulatory programs, on the one hand, and the demands of
justice in individual disputes, on the other – underlies all the contributions to this
part.
,Administrative litigation raises a set of questions familiar to any student of
administrative law: Under what circumstances should we allow a private party to
enlist the aid of an independent judge to rule on a dispute over administrative
action? Who may seek that aid (standing)? When (timing)? On what issues (scope of
review)? To what end (remedies)?
The boundaries of the state: public and private. What legal principles should apply
to private bodies that carry out formerly public functions or that take on new tasks
under contract?
An important variant on the public/private divide arises if a regulated sector, such
as banking and finance, is in private hands, but becomes a serious public policy
concern in a crisis. If some of the firms are ‘too big to fail’, the state may
intervene under emergency conditions.
The boundaries of the state: transnational administration in the EU. Some entities
with regulatory authority operate beyond the state – perhaps internationally, like
the GATT/WTO, or regionally and supranationally, like the EU. If their deci- sions
affect rights and duties within states, how should we understand that power in
legal terms? Should we understand it as a novel kind of ‘constitutional’ authority,
perhaps of an emerging proto-state? Or is it best understood as a denationalized
extension of ‘administrative governance’ on the national level? We do not pretend
to answer these complex questions here, though we note that one of us has argued
extensively for an essentially ‘administrative, not constitutional’ understanding of
denationalized regulatory power in the EU. Others have not gone so far.
Branches of the government:
US: Trias Politica
L:
• Congress (US). Congress makes our laws. Congress is divided into 2 parts. One
part is called the Senate. There are 100 Senators--2 from each of our states.
Another part is called the House of Representatives. Representatives meet
together to discuss ideas and decide if these ideas (bills) should become
laws.
• Parliament (NL)
• Bundestag (DE)
• House of Commons (UK)
, • Congrès du Parlement Francais (FR)
E:
• President & Vice-President (US). The President enforces the laws that the
Legislative Branch (Congress) makes.
• King & Minister-President (NL)
• Federal Chancellor (DE)
• Prime Minister appointed by Queen (UK)
• President & Prime-Minister (FR)
J:
• Supreme court & Federal courts (US) only the highest. The Judicial part of our
federal government includes the Supreme Court and 9 Justices. They are
special judges who interpret laws according to the Constitution. These
justices only hear cases that pertain to issues related to the Constitution.
They are the highest court in our country. The federal judicial system also
has lower courts located in each state to hear cases involving federal issues.
• Rechtbanken & rechters (NL) alle courts on every level.
• Federal Constitutional Court (DE)
• Supreme Court (UK)
• Cour de Cassation (FR)
Formation of administrative law:
Agency sets up, is the creator so also the monitor.
^ This system can apply to several states to make law.
Legislative process flowchart: idea/bill:
