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Sordi, Bernardo --- "Révolution, Rechtsstaat and the Rule of Law: Historical Reflections on the Emergence of Administrative Law in Europe" [2010] ELECD 803; 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: Chapter 1

Section Title: Révolution, Rechtsstaat and the Rule of Law: Historical Reflections on the Emergence of Administrative Law in Europe

Author(s): Sordi, Bernardo

Number of pages: 14

Extract:

1 Révolution, Rechtsstaat, and the Rule of Law:
historical reflections on the emergence of
administrative law in Europe
Bernardo Sordi*


The history of administrative law in Europe reflects the emergence and evolution of
administrative power within the nation state over the last two and half centuries. Several
broad comparative questions arise: In what ways have the various paths to droit adminis-
tratif in France or Verwaltungsrecht in Germany converged or diverged from the path to
administrative law in England (and later America)? Similarly, how have the German or
French paths to the Rechtsstaat or the État de droit, respectively, converged or diverged
from the Anglo-American path to the Rule of Law?
Providing intelligible answers to these questions is a difficult challenge. The develop-
ments under discussion are at once specifically national and, at the same time, so broad
and complex as perhaps to elude effective comparison, at least in the minds of some
readers. It is therefore advisable to circumscribe both the questions and the possible
answers, as well as to establish chronological limits.
The particular routes to droit administratif, Verwaltungsrecht, or administrative law
must be understood in light of the various processes of State-formation and the differ-
ent constitutional histories of the countries concerned. Nevertheless, no State-building
process mechanistically translates into a particular system of administrative law. The
history of State-formation in Europe proceeded not merely according to its own specific
tempos but also on a different factual level from the conceptual and legal ...