RESEARCH
LPL EDITIONS
RESEARCH ACADEMY
HAPPENING
RESEARCH
Administrative Law
Transformations of Contemporary General Administrative Law Theory
Francisco Paes Marques
- Eurico Bitencourt Neto
12 meses
Ongoing
Summary
The project examines the impact of contemporary social and economic transformations on Public Administration and Administrative Law.
Processes such as globalisation, the emergence of the information society and the increasing complexity of public governance have reshaped the role of the State and contributed to the fragmentation of General Administrative Law.
The project aims to revitalise its theoretical foundations by developing a coherent framework capable of integrating the advances made in specialised fields of Administrative Law.
Objectives
- - Examine the sociological foundations of the contemporary transformation of Public Administration and Administrative Law.
- - Analyse the impact of these developments on the concepts, principles and instruments of General Administrative Law.
- - Critically analyse developments in specialised areas of Administrative Law and their relationship with the general theory from a systemic perspective.
Relevance
First, by examining the transformations of Administrative Law doctrine, the project makes a significant contribution to understanding the scope of the rule of law and, consequently, the boundaries of Public Law.
The "reform of Administrative Law" has, from the outset, been a reform of Administrative Law doctrine—an objective at the heart of this project. Legal doctrine serves as the operational layer between the legal text and its application by the administration in implementing the law, and by the courts in exercising judicial review. It comprises a body of legal concepts and normative structures developed on the basis of positive law, while not depending on the existence of individual legal provisions.
In a state governed by the rule of law, legal doctrine is always subsidiary to the law itself. Nevertheless, without legal doctrine, the rule of law loses one of its most essential attributes: the intelligibility of the law and the rationality of its application (Schmidt-Assmann).
Secondly, through the partnership with the Federal University of Minas Gerais, the reconstruction of General Administrative Law can be approached from a broader comparative perspective, within the context of a legal system that shares close constitutional values, as well as strong social and cultural affinities, with the Portuguese legal order.
