Abstract:The discussion on the emergence of global administrative law is centered around the question: "Is it law?" and problems of accountability. This is a narrow perspective which ignores the autonomy of the administrative "internal law" generated by administrative agencies themselves. This is shown for the evolution of domestic administrative law in the 19 th century and its transformations in the 20 th century. Domestic administrative law is only to a much lesser extent a product of courts or legislators than hitherto taken for granted. This is why it should not come as a surprise that the instruments and forms of global administrative law are generated by transnational administrative networks of agencies. The evolution of both domestic and transnational administrative law will allow for new heterarchical forms of accountability and legitimation once the focus on a hierarchical concept of delegation is given up. The paper tries to outline a perspective on the transformation of administrative law based on domestic administrative law but at the same time intends to open a perspective on a new look at the emergent global administrative law.Keywords: accountability, global administrative law, autonomy, administrative "internal law", Domestic administrative law, transnational administrative networks of agencies, new heterarchical forms of accountability, legitimation, delegation, transformation
JEL Classification: K 39
Karl-Heinz Ladeur
The Evolution of General Administrative Law and the Emergence of Postmodern Administrative LawKarl-Heinz Ladeur *
I. PRELIMINARY REMARKSThe discussion on "international administrative law" has been established -following the logic of its object -as an international topic for quite some time. However, this evolution does not exclude the differentiation of, so to speak, regional and methodologically approaches within the global network of legal research: in the US, one can observe a focus on "global administrative law" at the law faculty of NYU -and this shift of the accent to "global" instead of "international administrative law" is not without consequences. The focus is more on case studies and methodological questions. 1 This approach corresponds with the ideas of an Italian group of researchers, which has been set up at Viterbo, 2 and with other individual contributors to the international discussion. In as far as one can already talk about an established field of research in Germany, one can observe a different focus on a rather traditional systematic differentiation of certain "matters" which are undergoing a process of internationalisation. 3 In the following, an approach will be developed which tries to build a bridge between global and domestic administrative law. It will be shown that there is a close link between the evolution of administrative law in postmodernity and the emergence of global administrative law, and that the basic institutions of administrative law are products of the autonomous rationality of administration. This sheds new light on the questions of bo...