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Smith, Melanie --- "Tracing the Development of Administrative Principles in the EU: A Possible New Approach to Legitimacy?" [2012] ELECD 515; in Trybus, Martin; Rubini, Luca (eds), "The Treaty of Lisbon and the Future of European Law and Policy" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: The Treaty of Lisbon and the Future of European Law and Policy

Editor(s): Trybus, Martin; Rubini, Luca

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857932556

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Tracing the Development of Administrative Principles in the EU: A Possible New Approach to Legitimacy?

Author(s): Smith, Melanie

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

5. Tracing the development of
administrative principles in the EU:
a possible new approach to
legitimacy?
Melanie Smith

1. INTRODUCTION

This chapter relates to ideas about the governance of the EU writ large, in
particular, concerns about the legitimacy of the EU as a polity, and it also
references the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is the unifying theme
in Part III, later in the book. This chapter examines what impact adminis-
trative law, or administrative-type mechanisms and principles, can have on
the question of EU legitimacy. It considers the interconnectedness of the
concepts of good administration, good governance and legitimacy in the
EU. Questions relating to the EU's legitimacy as a sui generis polity have
attracted the attention of scholars from diverse disciplinary fields, and
there has been a rich debate on the normative progression of the EU as an
organisation,1 its state of integration,2 its constitutional development,3 and
so on. In contrast, debates relating to the administrative development of
the EU, whilst varied in nature, have not been as diverse or in-depth, rather
they have been highly sectoral in nature.4 There has, in fact, been little

1
Weiler, J.H.H. (1991), `The Transformation of Europe', Yale Law Journal,
100, 2403­2483.
2
Majone, G. (2005), Dilemmas of European Integration: The Ambiguities and
Pitfalls of Integration by Stealth, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3
Walker, N. (ed.) (2006), Relocating Sovereignty, Farnham: Ashgate.
4
With some notable exceptions: see, Harlow, C. (1998), `European ...