Administrative Law Teaching Material

Administrative law, a crucial branch of public law, acts as the bridge between the state and its citizens, meticulously governing how the executive branch and its agencies wield power to ensure they operate within legal boundaries. Its ultimate purpose is to control governmental power, safeguarding citizens from ultra vires (beyond powers) acts, abuse of authority, and arbitrary decisions.

This field of law emerged as a distinct discipline in response to evolving political and economic landscapes. The shift from a “police state” with minimal government interference to a “welfare state” with increased government involvement in socio-economic functions necessitated a corresponding increase in administrative power and, simultaneously, the need for robust control mechanisms over that power. Without such control, the concentration of power in public officials could pose a significant threat to individual rights and freedoms. Therefore, administrative law developed as a direct response to the challenges of “big government”.

Defining its Essence: Purpose, Scope, and Sources

While there’s no single, universally agreed-upon definition due to the vast and ever-expanding nature of administrative processes, key aspects consistently emerge. Administrative law primarily focuses on the manner in which governmental power is exercised, emphasizing that the decision-making process is often more critical than the decision itself. Its underlying purpose is the control of governmental power. This control ensures legality, fairness, and accountability in public administration. It also serves a command function, compelling public bodies to fulfill their statutory duties, and embodies positive principles that promote good administrative practices, such as adherence to the rules of natural justice. Ultimately, it aims to provide remedies for citizens aggrieved by actions of public authorities.

The principles and rules of administrative law are derived from multiple sources. These include:

• The Constitution: Providing broad principles for government administration, accountability, direct democratic participation, and the rule of law. It also outlines the separation of powers.
• Legislation: Laws adopted by parliament that create administrative agencies, define their powers, and specify procedures they must follow. Actions exceeding these limits are considered ultra vires and can be invalidated by courts.
• Delegated Legislation: Rules, directives, and regulations issued by the Council of Ministers and individual administrative agencies. Administrative law scrutinizes these to ensure their constitutionality, legality, and to prevent encroachment on fundamental citizen rights.
• Judicial Opinion: While not the primary source, judicial analysis of other sources contributes to administrative law. In countries like Ethiopia, the role of judicial opinion as a source is still developing, though its significance is expected to grow with the application of precedent.

The scope of administrative law primarily extends to situations where administrative agencies and public officials exercise statutory or public powers, or perform public duties—often referred to as “public law functions”. This distinguishes it from “private law functions” which govern relationships between individuals or certain state relationships based on contracts.

Controlling Governmental Powers

A core aspect of administrative law involves establishing mechanisms to control governmental powers. These include:

• Internal Control
• External Control
• Parliamentary Control: Parliament can scrutinize statutory instruments and draft instruments, review agency performance through budgetary hearings, and question officials.
• Executive Control
• Control by Administrative Tribunals
• Judicial Control: This is a crucial mechanism, enabling courts to intervene and test the legality of administrative decisions through judicial review. Judicial review aims to ensure decisions are made within legal powers, comply with the law, and adhere to principles of fairness. However, courts generally refrain from questioning the substance of administrative action, focusing instead on its legality, in line with the principle of separation of powers.
• Control by Human Rights Commission and Ombudsman.
• Mass Media Control.