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Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, Peter L. --- "Comparative Administrative Law: An Introduction" [2010] ELECD 802; in Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, L. Peter (eds), "Comparative Administrative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Comparative Administrative Law

Editor(s): Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, L. Peter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446359

Section Title: Comparative Administrative Law: An Introduction

Author(s): Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, Peter L.

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

Comparative administrative law: an introduction
Susan Rose-Ackerman and Peter L. Lindseth


Administrative law exists at the interface between the state and society ­ between civil
servants and state institutions, on the one hand, and citizens, business firms, organized
groups, and non-citizens, on the other. Civil service law and bureaucratic organization
charts and rules provide an essential background, but our emphasis is on the law's fun-
damental role in framing the way individuals and organizations test and challenge the
legitimacy of the modern state outside of the electoral process. There are two broad tasks
­ protecting individuals against an overreaching state and providing external checks that
enhance the democratic accountability and competence of the administration.
Public law is the product of statutory, constitutional, and judicial choices over time;
it blends constitutional and administrative concerns. The Germans speak of administra-
tive law as `concretized' constitutional law, and Americans often call it `applied' con-
stitutional law. The English, with no written constitution, refer to `natural justice' and,
more recently, to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The French
tradition of droit administratif contains within it a whole conceptual vocabulary ­ dualité
de juridiction, acte administratif, service public ­ that has been deeply influential in many
parts of the world (notably francophone Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America).
East Asia has a long tradition of centralized, hierarchical, and bureaucratic rule ­ a sort
of `administrative law' avant la lettre. And yet, in forging its own modern variants, East
Asia has also drawn on Western ( ...