Public Administration

Public Administration

How Public Administration affected constitutional provision

Public Administration affected constitutional provision through submission of public administration to law in developing countries today is generally not considered to be satisfactory. However, the situations are in fact very diverse. Mutations under way in public law systems of industrialized countries have to be considered too, since they have an impact in developing countries, either because they give the lead or because they are responses to deep social changes that also affect developing countries. In each country, the resources available for reform have to be identified and appraised.

Law and administration

It seems essential to take into account the extreme diversity of situations with respect to the submission of public administration to law, and the specificity of public administration in the development of legal systems. But in general, there exists a striking deficiency in implementation of law, especially regarding public administration.

Diversity of situations

In almost all developing countries, in so far as there is a constitution, there exists a legal and regulatory framework of public administration, as well as a number of laws organizing government and the public service and usually more or less extensive judicial remedies. But that does not mean that public administration is in fact subject to the law. The scope of public law, its place in the legal system as a whole and the intensity of its regulations differgreatly from one country to another, and even more its efficiency, i.e. compliance with its provisions.

Differences in the scope of public law and its place in the whole legal system are the result to a large extent of history and tradition. That is why most Latin American countries have an extensive administrative law influenced by the French model, as well as do French-speaking African countries. For the

latter it is part of the colonial legacy; long after independence, continuity in the legal system is supported by continuity in administrative institutions, and even more in legal education, because the new rules will be devised upon the basic legal concepts of the legal system in force. This is not true specifically of countries from the former French colonies, but also of Commonwealth countries, which are deeply embedded in the common law tradition. In Latin American countries, the influence of the French administrative law is the result of the particular political and cultural influence of France at the end of the nineteenth century on the ruling class (among the influences of other European countries on various aspects of politics, culture and the military).

Nowadays the basic concepts of administrative law are still alive, and in Colombia, French law remains a source of inspiration. However, some important differences demonstrate an autonomous evolution: the codification of administrative procedure for litigation, the result of which is a much smaller role of the notion of "public service" as a criterion to determine the competence either of the administrative or of the judicial judiciary. A general law on contracts passed by public administration, and contracts subject to administrative law are only those ...