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della Cananea, Giacinto --- "The European administration: imperium and dominium" [2017] ELECD 414; in Harlow, Carol; Leino, Päivi; della Cananea, Giacinto (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Administrative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 44

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Administrative Law

Editor(s): Harlow, Carol; Leino, Päivi; della Cananea, Giacinto

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784710675

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: The European administration: imperium and dominium

Author(s): della Cananea, Giacinto

Number of pages: 25

Abstract/Description:

This chapter focuses on an essential element of EU administrative law, the European administration. The reason is simple: as observed by Martin Shapiro, ‘administrative law as historically has been understood presupposes that there is something called administration’. Until some decades ago, in the EC, this relatively simple connection between the administration and the system of law that regulates it seemed either to fade or even to be lost. Since the creation of the High Authority (HA) of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) (1951), there was no doubt that a European administration, considered as an organization, existed and had its own staff. What was at issue, rather, was whether there was a European administration functionally intended, involved in the business of government by performing public functions and exercising public powers. Initially, several commentators thought that this was not the case. Today, few of those working in this field would subscribe to that point of view. However, it would be wrong to criticize it without considering that it was embedded in the realities of its time and was inevitably influenced by general theories about law and government. A quick look at this point of view is helpful to understand the initial features of the European administration and its changes. As a second step, I shall look at the legal arrangements that establish public authorities in the European legal space and regulate the discharge of their duties, with a specific focus on the forms and exercises of power.