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

Türk, Alexander H. --- "Administrative law and fundamental rights" [2017] ELECD 969; in Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh; Hatzis, Nicholas (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Law and Human Rights" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 120

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Law and Human Rights

Editor(s): Douglas-Scott, Sionaidh; Hatzis, Nicholas

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782546399

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Administrative law and fundamental rights

Author(s): Türk, Alexander H.

Number of pages: 19

Abstract/Description:

The evolution of the European administration from the limited transnational arrangements of the Coal and Steel Treaty to the complex administrative structures within the supranational system of the Union with its sweeping competences affecting almost every aspect of society has also brought with it an increased importance of fundamental rights protection against the powers exercised by the Union’s administrative bodies. While initially driven by judicial construction of fundamental rights as general principles of Union law to constrain the Commission’s exercise of administrative powers and thereby firmly based on a rule of law rationale for such rights, the Union’s political institutions and the Member States have come to consider fundamental rights not only as an expression of the rule of law, but also as a tool for enhancing the democratic credentials of the Union, without which it is thought that the gains of European integration cannot be secured. The former (judicial) strand has drawn on what the Union courts perceive as common principles of national administrative law and steers a careful path between the more process-oriented rights of the common law and the more public-interest focused concerns of the continental European traditions. These principles have in turn been imposed on the Member States’ administrations and have led to a set of shared administrative law principles in the European administrative space. The latter (political) strand has led Union institutions and Member States not only to embed fundamental rights in administrative processes in mainly sector-specific Union legislation, but also to seek a more accountable and open administration.