Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Ginsburg, Tom --- "Written constitutions and the administrative state: on the constitutional character of administrative law" [2017] ELECD 1085; in Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, L. Peter; Emerson, Blake (eds), "Comparative Administrative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 60

Book Title: Comparative Administrative Law

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

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784718657

Section: Chapter 4

Section Title: Written constitutions and the administrative state: on the constitutional character of administrative law

Author(s): Ginsburg, Tom

Number of pages: 11

Abstract/Description:

Although constitutional law often occupies the pride of place in public law discussions, this chapter argues along many dimensions, administrative law can be considered more constitutional in character than constitutions. It is both more reflective of local preferences and values, and also often superior in terms of limiting government behavior. It is also, in many contexts, more stable and enduring than are written constitutions. Paying attention to comparative administrative law as a feature of the unwritten constitution of nation-states helps to expose the limits of constitutions as regulatory devices.