Administrative Law, The Legal Framework Within Which: Public Administration Justice Government

Administrative law, the legal framework within which public administration is carried out.
It
derives from the need to create and develop a system of public administration under law, a concept
that may be compared with the much older notion of justice under law. Since administration involves
the exercise of power by the executive arm of government, administrative law is of constitutional and
political, as well as juridical, importance.
There is no universally accepted definition of administrative law, but rationally it may be held to
cover the organization, powers, duties, and functions of public authorities of all kinds engaged in
administration; their relations with one another and with citizens and nongovernmental bodies; legal
methods of controlling public administration; and the rights and liabilities of officials. Administrative
law is to a large extent complemented by constitutional law, and the line between them is hard to
draw. The organization of a national legislature, the structure of the courts, the characteristics of a
cabinet, and the role of the head of state are generally regarded as matters of constitutional law,
whereas the substantive and procedural provisions relating to central and local governments and
judicial review of administration are reckoned matters of administrative law. But some matters, such
as the responsibility of ministers, cannot be exclusively assigned to either administrative or
constitutional law. Some French and American jurists regard administrative law as including parts of
constitutional law.
The law relating to public health, education, housing, and other public services could logically be
regarded as part of the corpus of administrative law; but because of its sheer bulk it is usually
considered ancillary.
Defining Principles
One of the principal objects of administrative law is to ensure efficient, economical, and just
administration. A system of administrative law that impedes or frustrates administration
would clearly be bad, and so, too, would be a system that results in injustice to the
individual. But to judgewhether administrative law helps or hinders effective administration
or works in such a way as to deny justice to the individual involves an examination of the
ends that public administration is supposed to serve, as well as the means that it employs.
In this connection only the broadest generalities can be attempted. It can be asserted that
all states, irrespective of their economic and political system or of their stage of
development, are seeking to achieve a high rate of economic growth and a higher average
income per person. They are all pursuing the goals of modernization, urbanization, and
industrialization. They are all trying to provide the major social services, especially
education and public health, at as high a standard as possible. The level of popular
expectation is much higher than in former ages. The government is expected not only to
maintain order but also to achieve progress. There is a widespread belief that wise and
well-directed government action can abolish poverty, prevent severe unemployment, raise
the standard of living of the nation, and bring about rapid social development. People in all
countries are far more aware than their forefathers were of the impact of government on
their daily lives and of its potential for good and evil.
The growth in the functions of the state is to be found in the more-developed and in the
less-developed countries; in both old and new states; in democratic, authoritarian, and
totalitarian regimes; and in the mixed economies of the West. The movement is far from
having reached its zenith. With each addition to the functions of the state, additional powers
have been acquired by the administrative organs concerned, which may be central
ministries, local, provincial, or regional governments, or special agencies created for a
particular purpose.
Distinctions between public administration and private action
Activities such as traffic control, fire-protection services, policing, smoke abatement, the
construction or repair of highways, the provision of currency, town and country planning, and the
collection of customs and excise duties are usually carried out by governments,
whose executiveorgans are assumed to represent the collective will of the community and to be
acting for the common good. It is for this reason that they are given powers not normally conferred
on private persons. They may be authorized to infringe citizens’ property rights and restrict their
freedom of action in many different ways, ranging from the quarantining of infectious persons to the
instituting of criminal proceedings for nonpayment of taxes. To take another example, the postal laws
of many countries favour the post office at the expense of the customer in a way unknown where
common carriers are concerned. Again, a public authority involved in slum clearance or housing
construction tends to be in a much stronger legal position than a private developer.
The result of the distinction between public administration and private action is that administrative
law is quite different from private law regulating the actions, interests, and obligations of private
persons. Civil servants do not generally serve under a contract of employment but have a special
status. Taxes are not debts, nor are they governed by the law relating to the recovery of debts by
private persons. In addition, relations between one executive organ and another, and between an
executive organ and the public, are usually regulated by compulsory or permissive powers conferred
upon the executive organs by the legislature
Purpose of Administrative Law

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Purpose of Administrative Law

There has never been any serious doubt that administrative law is primarily
concerned with the control of power. With the increase in level of state
involvement in many aspects of everyday life during the first 80 years of the
twentieth century, the need for a coherent and effective body of rules to
govern relations between individuals and the state became essential. The
20th century saw the rise of the “regulatory state” and a consequent growth in
administrative agencies of various kinds engaged in the delivery of a wide
variety of public programs under statutory authority. This means, in effect, the
state nowadays controls and supervises the lives, conduct and business of
individuals in so many ways. Hence controlling the manner of exercise of
public power so as to ensure rule of law and respect for the right and liberty of
individuals may be taken as the key purpose of administrative law.
According to Peer Leyland and Tery Woods (Peter Leyland and Terry Woods,
Textbook on Administrative Law, 4th ed. ) Administrative law embodies
general principles applicable to the exercise of the powers and duties of
authorities in order to ensure that the myriad and discretionary powers
available to the executive conform to basic standards of legality and fairness.
The ostensible purpose of these principles is to ensure that there is
accountability, transparency and effectiveness in exercising of power in the
public domain, as well as the observance of rule of law.
Peer Leyland and Tery Woods have identified the following as the underlying
purposes of administrative law.
 It has a control function, acting in a negative sense as a brake or check in

respect of the unlawful exercise or abuse of governmental/
administrative power.
 It can have a command function by making public bodies perform their
statutory duties, including the exercise of discretion under a statute.
 It embodies positive principles to facilitate good administrative practice; for
example, in ensuring that the rules of natural justice or fairness are
adhered to.
 It operates to provide accountability and transparency, including
participation by interested individuals and parties in the process of
government.
 It may provide a remedy for grievances at the hands of public authorities.
Similarly I.P. Massey (I.P. Massey, Administrative Law, 5th ed.) identifies
the four basic bricks of the foundation of administrative law as:
 To check abuse of administrative power.

 To ensure to citizens an impartial determination of their disputes by officials
so as to protect them from unauthorized encroachment of their rights and
interests.
 To make those who exercise public power accountable to the people.
To realize these basic purposes, it is necessary to have a system of

administrative law rooted in basic principles of rule of law and good
administration. A comprehensive, advanced and effective system of
administrative law is underpinned by the following three broad principles:
Administrative justice, which at its core, is a philosophy that in
administrative decision- making the rights and interests of individuals should
be properly safe guarded.
Executive accountability, which has the aim of ensuring that those who
exercise the executive (and coercive) powers of the state can be called on to
explain and justify the way in which they have gone about that task.
Good administration- Administrative decision and action should conform to
universally accepted standards, such as rationality, fairness, consistency and
transparency
Administrative Law has come to be accepted as a necessary evil of all democratic countries of the world where welfare schemes for the
general body of people are planned. It has been accepted as inevitable for modern states, more to because of the concept of a socialistic
pattern of society and a welfare state which has been introduced and administered by the government in our country.
Primary Function of Administrative Law ↓
As regards the functions of Administrative law. A primarily consists in finding be ways in which Administration would be kept within a limit, so
that the discretionary powers of Administrative authorites could not become arbitrary powers.
According To Prof. Wade ↓
"The central question in Administrative law is how the legal ideas of fair procedure and just decision can be infused into the Administrative
powers of the state".
Administrative law supplies solution to the problem of reconciling freedom and justice for the private citizen with the necessities of a modern
government charged with the promotion of social and economic policies in our country. If proper means of control executive and judicial,
improving the procedure and extending the scope of judicial review are imposed on Administrative process, dangers of its being arbitrary are
reduced.
According To Benjamin ↓
"The task of administrative law is to reconcile, in the filed of administrative action, the democratic safeguards, standard of fair play with the
effective conduct of the government

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Administrative law, the legal framework within which public administration is carried out.

Purpose of Administrative Law

Purpose of Administrative Law

 It has a control function, acting in a negative sense as a brake or check in

 To check abuse of administrative power.

To realize these basic purposes, it is necessary to have a system of

Primary Function of Administrative Law ↓

According To Prof. Wade ↓

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