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Nehl, Hanns Peter --- "Administrative Law" [2006] ELECD 153; in Smits, M. Jan (ed), "Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law

Editor(s): Smits, M. Jan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420130

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Administrative Law

Author(s): Nehl, Hanns Peter

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

2 Administrative law*
Hanns Peter Nehl


1 Introduction
Comparative administrative law constitutes a relatively young discipline in
comparison with other fields of law in which comparative analysis is deeply
rooted, such as, in particular, private law. The main reason for this has been
the widely shared assumption that in the area of public law there would be
neither a practical nor a theoretical need to search for solutions that com-
parative analysis might have been able to bring about. In fact, since the 19th
century the domestic administrative systems have long been perceived as
reflecting a unique organizational choice by the nation state tailored to the
national political, societal, economic and cultural particularities of its
polity rather than being the result of transnationally shared fundamental
values or concerns. Thus traditional concepts of administrative law used to
emphasize the uniqueness of the state's administrative system that would
not easily allow comparisons with, let alone `transplants' from, other
systems. Contrary to this, private law, at least in its commercial aspects, has
traditionally been more open to comparative analysis and transnational
convergence. This essentially flows from the `universality' of the private
economic interests at stake and the need to facilitate ever growing private
cross-border transactions. Moreover, private law does not bear the same
intimate link with the identity of the nation state, its fundamental values
and the functioning of its public institutions as has been the case for domes-
tic administrative law (Bermann, 1996, pp. 30­31; della Cananea, 2003,
pp. ...