Diritto Pubblico Comparato ed Europeo

Sommario

Summary: 1. Introduction. – 2. The general interest and Administrative Law. – 3. Article 103 of the spanish Constitution. – 4. The flight from Administrative Law. – 5. New trends in social sciences – 6. The public authorities’ function to ensure and guarantee fundamental rights. – 7. The New Constitutional Administrative Law. – 8. The return to Administrative Law.

Abstract

The Author describes the flight from Administrative Law which occurred in the past decades. He argues that this flight is, on one hand, a physiological change due to the fact that legal systems opened to new types of relationship between public and private, while on the other hand it is connected to the fact that constitutional substance emerged in the special dimension of administration. In particular, in the context of the 1978 Spanish Constitution the concept of general interest appears to be cardinal so as to characterise so-called Constitutional Administrative Law. The latter appears to be linked to the objectives of serving the general interest and to promote fundamental rights. An open, plural, dynamic and complementary way of thinking therefore calls for a new approach to administration that could be defined as New Constitutional AdministrativeLaw.