INTRODUCTION
TO ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
1. Administrative law is being taught in many
institutions of higher education as well as in
numeorus special institutes.
2. For a long time administrative law has been a
subject of research and it becomes more and
more popular as a subject of teaching.
3. The role of administrative law in contemporary
states and society is so great and obvious that it
seems to be needless to develop any further
arguments to prove it.
4. A modern state cannot function without adm. law
and also public administration cannot function
without administrative law.
5.Administrative law involves the study of how those
parts of our system of government that are neither
legislatures nor courts make decisions. These
entities, referred to as administrative bodies, are
normally located in the executive branch of
government and are usually charged with the
day–to–day details of governing.
6. According to Professor T. Rakoff from Harvard Law
School ’Administrative law…[controls] how
government operates.’
Administrative law:
1. is the most extensive and flexible body of law controlling
the legal situation of both individuals and almost all other
subjects operating within the state
2. it usually contains imperative norms (absolutely binding
norms – ius cogens)
3. is usually supported by public power
4. has a broad scope and is difficult to codify
5. has rules which are inserted in acts of different rank,
enacted by various organs, in different periods of time
6. is not politically neutral (in the words of Ronald Dworkin it is
a political enterprise)
7. it is difficult to interpret norms of administrative law
8. this branch of law includes local law binding on the territory
of the organ issuing it.
Internal division
of administrative law
Administrative law
Structural a.l.
(who is acting?)
Substantive a.l.
(what is the object
of the action?)
Procedural a.l.
(how are
they acting?)
MAJOR FIELDS OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW:
1. Organizational administrative law, concerning the organization
of administrative authorities, institutions and agencies, as well as
rules regulating the distribution of tasks and competences, and is
linked with civil service law;
2. Substantive administrative law, concerning the competences of
specific entities of administration involving the rights of citizens, as
well as rights and obligations of citizens;
3. Formal administrative law, called administrative procedure, is
concerned with developing rules and procedures for
administrative agencies or administrative courts.
THE NATURE OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
 Adm. law in its modern form is a relatively young branch
of law.
 Administrative law evolved into a modern branch of law
at the turn of 19th century.
 The idea of creating this branch of law was to protect
people from arbitrary action of public authorities.
 Public law in the modern concept which offers an
account in governing authority in legal terms and is
formed by reworking the medieval idea of the sovereign
state. The nature of the concept is explain mainly
through examination of the writing of Bodin, Pufendorf
and Rousseau.
DOMESTIC AND EUROPEAN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW:
 domestic administrative law is founded on one, and single
authority, the Government. EU administrative law, on the
other hand, recognizes two authorities, the Council and
the Commission, which preside over the public
administration at the EU level; the composition of the EU is
complex, as it combines both European and
national/domestic (i.e. of member-states) administrative
bodies;
 domestic administrative law is characterized by a bi-polar
relationship between the citizen and the Administration.
The European administrative law is characterized by a tripolar relationship, between citizens, the Commission and
the national governments;
DOMESTIC AND EUROPEAN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW:
 domestic administrative law forms a special branch of
law, and public administration may impose it directly,
while the enforcement of European administrative law is
guaranteed either through the jurisprudence of the ECJ or
with the assistance of member-states’ public
administration.
 domestic administrative law is based on the
national/domestic Constitution, and the legal order that it
[the Constitution] describes. The European administrative
law, due to the lack of a Constitution, draws its
constitutional foundations from the Treaties, the general
principles of law and the common legal traditions of
member-states in the area of administrative law.
GLOBAL AND DOMESTIC ADMINISTRATIVE LAW:
 they both regulate the relations of an organization
with regulatory competences and powers, that
issues decisions and acts (or omissions) directed
both to its members but also to third parties, while
there is also a – more or less developed- system of
judicial review and protection for resolving or
mediating disputes arising from the operation of
the organization.
The presentation is based on:
1. Administrative law and Policy of the European Union, Hoffman H.C.H. ,
Rowe G.C., Türk A., Oxford University Press 2012.
2. Duniewska Z., Administrative law, [in:] Introduction to Polish law,
Wyrozumska A., (ed.), Łódź 2005.
3. Metzler E.L., The Growth and Development of Administrative. Law,
available at:
http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3911&
context=mulr
4. Możdzeń-Marcinkowski M., Introduction to Polish administrative law,
Second revised edition, C.H. Beck, Warszawa 2012.