Administrative Law

Administrative law is a branch of law regulating the powers, procedures, and acts of public administration. It applies to the organization, powers, duties and functions of public officials and public agencies of all kinds. Its development is connected with the functions of government and with the legal support of governmental bodies.

There are four types of powers delegated to administrative authorities by modern regulatory statutes: (1) the rulemaking power, or the power to issue general rules and regulations having the force of law for the purpose of filling up the details of statutory policy; (2) the licensing power, or the power to grant or refuse, to renew, and to revoke licenses or permits that may be required by statute for the pursuit of such professions as law and medicine and the conduct of certain forms of business; (3) the investigatory power, or the power to require witnesses to testify and produce books, papers, and records for the purpose of acquiring the information, needed for effective regulation; and (4) the directing power, or the power to issue, usually after notice and an opportunity to be heard, administrative orders by which a private party is required, in conformity with the governing statute, to do or refrain from doing specified things.

Whatever the public-service and control functions of the administrative system may be, their performance depends upon the conduct of everyday auxiliary operations: the management of personnel, financing, planning, and so on. Accordingly, the law must also establish rules to authorize and govern the auxiliary managerial operations and the relations that the administrative system is to bear, with respect to the actions of other bodies of the power.

In the broad sense, the problem of administrative law is an aspect of the main problem of political theory: the reconciliation of the authority and liberty. If being more concrete, the purposes of legal control of public administration are:

(1) to set administrative authorities and enable them to carry out public policies aimed to protection of the public interests, and

(2) to protect private interests against administrative interference or excess of power.

It is important to remember, that public interest includes the welfare of all members of the community, those who are regulated no less than those for whose regulation protection is undertaken. Accordingly, the public interest itself suffers if those who are regulated become victims of administrative oppression. Yet it is equally true that the private interest of those who are regulated is included in common public interest.

The aim of administrative law is thus to attain a synthesis of public and private interests in terms of the social and economic circumstances and ideals of the age.

Administrative law has a valuable power to act as an instrument for controlling the bureaucracy.

Under social-democratic regimes, political and judicial control of administration are regarded as complementary but effective ones. Political control is connected with questions of policy and the responsibility of the executive power for administrative activity and expenditures. Judicial control implies making inquiries about particular cases of complaint. Administrative law does not involve the control of the ministers’ functions or the work of the Prime Minister or the President. One of the principal functions of administrative law is to ensure efficient economical and legal administration.

It can be asserted that in all states, irrespective of their economic and political system or of their stage of development, governments are seeking the ways of achieving a high rate of economic growth and high income for the people. All of them are pursuing the goals of modernization, urbanization, and industrialization. They try to provide the major social services, especially education and public health at as high standards as possible. But the level of public expectation is much higher now. The governments are expected not only to maintain order in all spheres of life, but also to achieve progress . There is a widespread belief that wise and well-directed governmental actions can abolish poverty, prevent unemployment, raise the standard of living of the nation, and bring about rapid social development.

Dwell on the Topic 5