Administrative Law
9
Chris Backes and Mariolina Eliantonio
9.1 What Is Administrative Law?
9.1.1 From Police State to Welfare State
In everyday life, many things are not organized by private parties but by public
authorities. To drive your car to school or university, you must have a driving
license. While driving, you use public roads and cross traffic lights. You also pass
sites where public authorities have permitted the operation of industrial facilities,
while other areas have been designated as residential estates. Hopefully, the use of
dangerous substances in industrial production processes is sufficiently controlled. If
you study abroad, your certificates have to be recognized and you probably need a
residence permit. Public authorities (who deal with a country’s administration) play
a role in all these matters. In order to be able to perform their tasks, public
authorities (also described as administrative body or executive) need money.
Therefore, raising taxes or other financial contributions is an important task for
the administration too.
In the nineteenth century, the tasks of the state were mainly limited to
maintaining law and order within the country and defending its territory against
attacks from abroad. The idea behind this limitation was that public authorities
should refrain from interfering with the rights and freedoms of citizens as much as
possible.
After the industrial revolution, the tasks of the state shifted towards providing
community services and distributing wealth among its citizens. This process was
enhanced after several economic crises and, in particular, World War II. The tasks
of the administration were no longer just defense and the maintenance of public
order but also the provision of public goods and services.
C. Backes (*) • M. Eliantonio
Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
e-mail:[email protected]
J. Hage and B. Akkermans (eds.),Introduction to Law,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-06910-4_9,#Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
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