What are the foundations of administrative law ?

Administrative law generates the set of norms that define the functioning of the administration in the exercise of its rights and duties. It thus establishes relations between public individuals and the governed. It is a law that encompasses a large part of public law. Find out about the foundations on which administrative law is based in this article.

The material foundations

Although the foundations of administrative law constitute a controversy at the heart of many reflections, it is necessary to highlight some of the foundations specific to administrative law in a succinct manner.  Indeed, when we speak of the substantive foundations of administrative law, we must think of everything that inspires the law. In other words, it is what gives content to the law, or even the elements that give it substance. The latter is based on moral, religious, philosophical and political principles. Thus, through these different principles, administrative law finds its quintessence by giving itself the task of regulating certain elements for the proper functioning of a society. These elements relate to behaviour that is not in accordance with the law.  The material foundations then intervene in a significant way to group together all the fields which led to the development of administrative law.

Formal grounds

In contrast to the substantive foundations, the formal foundations of administrative law derive from the methods by which a legal rule is developed. Rather, it is the way in which a rule is prescribed as a judicial norm. Thus, there is a particular tendency to identify the frameworks that are responsible for the production of legal rules as well as the elegances that deserve to be operated between these rules. In doing so, when it is necessary to look at the national fountains of administrative law, several elements must be considered. These include the constitution, statutes, regulations and case law. Jurisprudence does not exclude the judge’s respect for the law, because the constitutional rules are there to let him know that he is not above the law. In this way, the judge becomes aware of his limits.