PHYSICS 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Montesquieu, Food Safety, A. V. Dicey
INTRODUCTION TO LAW (1. YEAR, 1. PERIOD)
CHAPTER 9: ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
• What is Administrative Law
o From Police State to Welfare State
▪ In 19th c, tasks of the State were mainly limited to maintaining law and order
w/in the country and defending gits territory against attacks from aboard
❖ Idea behind it is that this limitation was that public authorities should
refrain from interfering w/ the rights and freedoms of citizens as much
as possible
▪ After the industrial rev. the tasks shifted toward providing community services
and distributing wealth among the citizens
▪ The nature of the State has changed from <police State> to <welfare State>
▪ Administrative bodies
❖ Perform public duties and exercise certain powers
▪ Administrative authorities are guided and bound by procedural rules and
substantive requirements that serve to protect the interests of all parties
concerned
▪ Topics of administrative law
❖ Administrative authorities and their civil servants
❖ How administrative authorities get public powers
❖ Procedural rules for the use of public powers
❖ Substantive requirements administrative authorities have to take into
account when using their powers
❖ Objection procedures and judicial protection against administrative
action
o Multilayer Governance
▪ There are different levels of admin. decision-making,
▪ Together w/ the division of public powers between several territorial entitles
(central gov., region, municipality) , most countries have authorities specialized
in certain subject areas, which require specific technical knowledge and
equipment
▪ Admin. tasks and competences are not only divided between several layers of
admin. authorities w/in a national State
▪ In some cases, the admin. is no longer a purely national affair but rather a joint
venture of the European, national, and regional authorities. This is referred
Multilayer Governance
❖ Ex. Food safety, air traffic safety
❖ European Commission, European agencies
o Various Instruments and Powers to protect the general interest
▪ The administration has various instruments i.e. juridical and factual acts
Admin law deals w/ the relationship
between the executive and private
persons and/or organizations
▪ The legislator can empower the admin. body to issue general rules and can give
the admin. body the competence to grant subsidies or permits and to take
decisions in individual cases
▪ Competences:
❖ competences under public law
❖ competences under private law
o The Administration W/in the Trias Politica
▪ <power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely>
▪ Trias Politica (Montesquieu):
❖ Legislature, administration (or executive), judiciary
➢ The legislature is chosen by an is responsible to the people
➢ Administration receives its power only from the legislature and
is controlled by independent courts
➢ All European legal systems offer the possibility to go to court to
challenge both juridical and factual acts of administrative
authorities
➢ Courts may control whether the administrative body has acted
within the confines of the competences attributed to it and the
rules imposed upon it by the legislature
o Questions
▪ Instrumental function
❖ concerns the powers that administrative authorities need in order to
fulfil their tasks and the conditions
▪ The Safeguarding function
❖ deals with the protection of the rights and interests of citizens and of
private organizations against the use of administrative power
• Public Powers: Rule of Law and Legality Principle
o All of the states’ administrations are bound by the law
o Legality Principle
▪ The administration ́s competence to act must have a basis in legislation
▪ The legislature should confer competences upon the administration to perform
public duties and provide it with the power to interfere with the legal position
of individuals
▪ legislation should also set limits to the powers conferred upon the
administration
o Détournement de Pouvoir:
▪ The prohibition of détournement de pouvoir binds the administration to the
legislature, as the democratic representation of the people
• Procedural Rules and Substantive Requirements for the Use of Public Power: Thee General
Principles and Administrative Law
o Rationale of the General Principle: Preventing Abuse of Discretionary (optional) Power
Document Summary
Chapter 9: administrative law: what is administrative law, from police state to welfare state. Admin law deals w/ the relationship between the executive and private persons and/or organizations. In 19th c, tasks of the state were mainly limited to maintaining law and order w/in the country and defending gits territory against attacks from aboard. Perform public duties and exercise certain powers: administrative authorities are guided and bound by procedural rules and substantive requirements that serve to protect the interests of all parties concerned, topics of administrative law. Procedural rules for the use of public powers. Substantive requirements administrative authorities have to take into account when using their powers. In some cases, the admin. is no longer a purely national affair but rather a joint venture of the european, national, and regional authorities. Competences under private law: the administration w/in the trias politica,
