BOOK: Patrick HILBERT, Wunder im Verwaltungs. Funktionen religiöser Metaphern in der Rechtsdogmatik [Lectiones Inaugurales; 20] (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2025), 59 p., ISBN 978-3-428-19085-0

  

ABOUT THE BOOK:

 

Wunder gibt es im Verwaltungsrecht immer wieder. Sie begegnen uns als religiöse Metaphern in dogmatischen Argumentationen. Wenn sich etwa der gebundene Anspruch auf Nutzung einer öffentlichen Einrichtung in einen Anspruch auf ermessensfehlerfreie Auswahlentscheidung wandelt, wird hierfür zwar keine klassische dogmatische Begründung gegeben, mit der Bezeichnung als »Wandlung« aber eine Formulierung gebraucht, die nicht nur entfernt an die Transsubstantiation erinnert.

Anhand von drei Beispielen spürt Patrick Hilbert den religiösen Metaphern im Verwaltungsrecht nach, untersucht, ob ihre Verwendung methodisch zulässig ist und welche Funktionen (religiöse) Metaphern in der juristischen Dogmatik erfüllen können.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 

I. Wunder als Metapher in der verwaltungsrechtlichen Dogmatik
Die Wandlung – Die Auferstehung – Die Heilung

II. Warum Metaphern?

III. Warum religiöse Metaphern?

IV. Funktionen von (religiösen) Metaphern in der Dogmatik
Methodische Zulässigkeit – Name für ein dogmatisches Argument – Vorstufe zu einem dogmatischen Argument – Stilmittel – Multifunktionalität von Metaphern

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

Patrick Hilbert, Studium in Bayreuth, Promotion und Habilitation in Heidelberg. Seit 2022 Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Öffentliches Recht, insbesondere Verwaltungsrecht der Universität Münster, Direktor des Instituts für Umwelt- und Planungsrecht sowie des Zentralinstituts für Raumplanung. Er forscht und lehrt zum deutschen und europäischen Öffentlichen Recht. Seine aktuellen Arbeitsschwerpunkte liegen im Allgemeinen Verwaltungsrecht, den Strukturfragen des Umweltrechts sowie dem Parlamentsrecht.

 

Find more here. 

 

 

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Between State Authority and Legal Supremacy – (Legal) Historical Perspectives on Administrative Justice in Germany and Europe (Regensburg: University of Regensburg, 19-20 MAR 2026) [DEADLINE 5 OCT 2025]

(Image source: The organisers of the Conference)

The history of administrative jurisdiction is a central topic in the history of law and public administration, as well as in the political development of Germany and Europe.

Administrative courts play a significant role in overseeing state action and upholding the principles of the rule of law. Their origin, development and function reflect historical processes of transformation and are closely linked to social, political and legal change.

Since the 19th century, different forms of judicial oversight of administration have emerged across Europe within this context. This heterogeneity of administrative jurisdiction has proven particularly relevant in recent history, especially in light of the influence of European law on individual nation-states.

Since their inception, administrative courts have operated within multiple areas of tension, such as between the protection of individual rights and the objective oversight of legality. Moreover, the role of administrative courts also had to be renegotiated within the constitutional and judicial framework.

The planned research symposium offers an opportunity to present and discuss current research on this field.

A key aim is to foster interdisciplinary exchange and to open perspectives from legal history, administrative sciences, political science, history and related disciplines.

Various research approaches will be brought together, and a wide range of topics will be explored, including the legislative history at national and international levels, comparative law analyses of different systems of administrative justice, and the practical work of administrative courts, particularly through rulings and decisions.

In addition, the sociography of administrative judges as well as the impact of individual personalities is to be brought into focus.

Possible approaches to the topic include:

• The emergence and development of administrative jurisdiction in Germany and other European countries
• Comparative perspectives on administrative justice across different legal systems
• The relationship between administrative courts and other courts, as well as their position within the constitutional framework
• The influence of European law and European institutions on national systems of administrative justice
• The impact of political, social, and economic upheavals on administrative jurisdiction
• The role of administrative courts in the constitutional democracy

The conference theme is deliberately broad in scope and aims to open up various aspects and perspectives on the role of administrative jurisdiction in Germany and Europe.

Conditions of Participation:

This call for abstracts is specifically aimed at early-career researchers working within the relevant disciplinary fields. We therefore welcome submissions from students, doctoral candidates, postdoctoral researchers and scholars pursuing habilitation.

Each presentation will be allocated a 45-minute time slot, with the talk itself expected to last approximately 20 minutes, allowing ample time for subsequent discussion.

Submission:

Interested applicants are invited to submit an abstract (max. 500 words) along with a short academic CV (max. 1 page) by 5 October 2025 to michael.reichenthaler@jura.uni-regensburg.de.

Notification of acceptance will be provided by end of October 2025.

Event Details:

The symposium will take place on 19–20 March 2026 at the University of Regensburg. Participation and/or presentations may also be possible digitally upon prior arrangement.

Acommodation costs for the night of 19 to 20 March can be covered. At present, travel expenses of up to €100 per person can also be reimbursed.

Following the symposium, the publication of the contributions is planned with Rechtskultur Verlag.

Further information will be provided upon acceptance of the submissions.

Contact:

Michael Reichenthaler, Research Assistant

• Chair of Civil Law, German and European Legal History and Canon Law (Prof. Dr. Martin Löhnig, University of Regensburg)
• michael.reichenthaler[at]jura.uni-regensburg.de

BOOK: Frieder GÜNTHER, Verwaltungsstaat. Die Verwaltungskultur der deutschen Innenministerien 1919-1975 [Veröffentlichungen zur Geschichte der deutschen Innenministerien nach 1945; 8] (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2025), 329 p., ISBN: 978-3-8353-5832-4

 

About the book:

Das Reichsinnenministerium, das Bundesinnenministerium und das Innenministerium der DDR zwischen Kontinuitäten und politischer Systemabhängigkeit.

Wir leben in einem modernen Verwaltungsstaat. Die Verwaltung ordnet und gestaltet Gesellschaft sowie Politik, bereitet Regierungsentscheidungen vor, setzt sie um und greift damit tief in unser Leben ein. Während des gesamten 20. Jahrhunderts war sie ein Fundament deutscher Staatlichkeit. Denn auch wenn sie nicht unabhängig agieren konnte, besaß sie eine zentrale und häufig unterschätzte Funktion für das gesamte Gemeinwesen. Doch wie genau funktionierte sie? Und worin unterschied sie sich angesichts der tiefgreifenden politischen Systembrüche in Deutschland im 20. Jahrhundert? Was waren also die Besonderheiten der Verwaltung in der Weimarer Republik, der NS-Diktatur, der Bundesrepublik und der DDR? Frieder Günther untersucht die deutschen Innenministerien und stellt dabei ihre Verwaltungskultur in den Mittelpunkt. Während auf den ersten Blick Kontinuitäten etwa im Hinblick auf den Aufbau, die Bezeichnungen und die Kompetenzen überwiegen, treten bei genauerer Betrachtung deutliche Unterschiede beim Personal, beim Selbstverständnis, bei den internen Abläufen und bei der Funktion hervor. Besonders drastisch unterschied sich die DDR von der rechtsstaatlichen Verwaltung der Weimarer Republik und der Bundesrepublik, während die nationalsozialistische Verwaltung eine Zwischenstellung einnahm.

About the author:

Frieder Günther, geb. 1971, ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter und Forschungsprojektleiter am Institut für Zeitgeschichte München-Berlin sowie Privatdozent an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
Veröffentlichungen u. a.: Heuss auf Reisen. Die auswärtige Repräsentation der Bundesrepublik durch den ersten Bundespräsidenten (2006); Denken vom Staat her. Die bundesdeutsche Staatsrechtslehre zwischen Dezision und Integration 1949–1970 (2004).

Find more here.

BOOK: Andrea RAPINI, Lo Stato della felicità. Una storia sociale della Scienza dell’amministrazione in Italia (1875-1935) (Rome: Viella, 2024). ISBN: 9791254695494

(Image source: Viella Editore)

About the book

Questo libro racconta la genealogia, la vita e la morte – tra il 1875 e il 1935 – della Scienza dell’amministrazione: una disciplina universitaria molto diversa da quella attuale. All’epoca, infatti, si proponeva di ridurre le disuguaglianze sociali con l’ambizione di porre persino il tema della felicità. Cercò di farlo contrastando lo sbriciolamento delle scienze sociali in sottocampi incomunicanti e l’egemonia del formalismo giuridico nelle facoltà di Giurisprudenza e nella cultura dello Stato. Per gli scienziati dell’amministrazione quel sapere – e il liberalismo collegato – era incapace di guidare le élites politiche verso la risoluzione positiva della “questione sociale”. Nel corso di settant’anni, la Scienza dell’amministrazione fu sconfitta e di essa si è poi persa ogni traccia, sepolta dalla nuova identità che la disciplina si è data a partire dagli anni Sessanta del secondo dopoguerra fino ad oggi. Il libro disseppellisce quelle tracce, ricostruisce le condizioni di possibilità di questa sconfitta e mostra i suoi effetti di lungo periodo.

About the author

Andrea Rapini è professore di Storia contemporanea presso il Dipartimento di sociologia e diritto dell’economia dell’Università di Bologna. I suoi studi hanno riguardato principalmente la storia e la memoria dell’antifascismo; la storia d’impresa; la sociologia di Pierre Bourdieu e la storia dei saperi. Tra le sue ultime pubblicazioni: Histoire des savoirs et relations de pouvoir. Les métamorphoses de la science administrative italienne (1875-1935), in «Annales. Histoire, Sciences sociale», 2 (2024), pp. 1-34 (con Pierre Weill).

Table of contents

Prefazione di Sabino Cassese

1. Introduzione

1. La Scienza dell’amministrazione come problema storico
2. Modus operandi
3. La struttura del libro

2. Lo State building e l’istituzionalizzazione della Scienza dell’amministrazione

1. Radici nazionali e transfert internazionale
2. Regolamenti, frontiere, territori
3. La consacrazione: spie
4. L’attrazione delle altre discipline: Luigi Rava

3. Chi decide che cos’è la Scienza dell’amministrazione?

1. Il modello italiano di Università tra Francia e Germania
2. Il reclutamento dei reclutatori
3. Dagli individui alle reti
4. Vittorio Emanuele Orlando tra nucleo di coordinamento e periferia decisionale
5. Discipline e disciplinamento: Giovanni Vacchelli
6. Appendice: Misure centro/periferia nei due periodi

4. Scienza dell’amministrazione, guerra totale e riforma sociale

1. La guerra moderna, il lavoro e la cura della popolazione
2. Una nebulosa riformatrice: analisi prosopografica
3. Le proposte della Commissione per lo studio della Legislazione sociale e della previdenza
4. L’invenzione delle classi medie
5. Sul bordo del precipizio: Scienza dell’amministrazione, Stato liberale, fascismo
6. Quando non si «apre la sala»

5. La deistituzionalizzazione della Scienza dell’amministrazione

1. L’Università Cattolica, Romeo Vuoli e l’istituzionalizzazione delle Scienze politiche
2. Scienza dell’amministrazione e corporativismo
3. La tetrarchia
4. Ai margini della disciplina: Carlo Francesco Ferraris
5. L’anomalia: Guido Cavaglieri
6. Il nomos della disciplina: Oreste Ranelletti

6. «L’uomo baco»: conclusioni

More information can be found here.

SEMINAR SERIES: Le spectacle des arcanes. Le travail de l’administration sur elle-même (images, discours, corpus) Première modernité, Europe et premières colonies (FEB-DEC 2024, h. 12:30-14) [ONLINE]

(Image source: La République européenne des bureaux)

Dans un texte désormais célèbre, Denis Richet analysait le travail de la monarchie sur elle-même. Le wébinaire que nous proposons invite à suivre ses analyses, en décentrant le regard sur les acteurs institutionnels, individuels et collectifs, qui, dans l’exercice quotidien de la souveraineté au nom des autorités publiques, travaillent à façonner leurs propres charges, à discuter les ordres qu’ils reçoivent et à feindre l’antiquité de leurs propres pratiques instituées bien souvent récemment, au gré d’un coup politique, d’une disgrâce, d’un changement dynastique. Pour dessiner les contours scientifiques de cet objet de recherche original, les sources mobilisées au cours des séances seront autant des sources iconographiques que textuelles, en questionnant la notion de corpus d’enquête et son lien avec les questionnaires de recherche. La modernité est entendue de manière large, afin de prolonger, pour la première modernité, les analyses heuristiques de la lente montée en puissance des administrations expertes de la fin du Moyen Âge, institutions implantées dans les entourages souverains depuis plus d’un siècle lors du déclenchement des conflits civils et géopolitiques de forte intensité au second xvie siècle. La visée des séances est de parvenir à analyser les représentations du pouvoir qui se pense et se donne à voir à lui-même, à la société administrative et à la société politique dans ces discours de formes hybrides, véritables objets politiques dotés d’une efficacité politique et sociale, inscrits au cœur des stratégies de propagande et de communication politique. Cette approche permet également de restituer plus finement quel est le périmètre de la fraction de la société politique que nous proposons de nommer société administrative. Le wébinaire donne la parole à des collègues de disciplines diverses telles que l’histoire, les sciences du droit et les sciences politiques et sociales, la littérature, l’anthropologie, la philosophie et l’histoire des images. Les séances permettent de dresser les entrées d’un questionnaire de recherche en vue de l’organisation d’un colloque international à Bruxelles à l’automne 2025, premier point d’étape de la constitution d’un groupe de recherche transdisciplinaire en histoire et anthropologie culturelles du politique.

Inscription obligatoire (jeremie.ferrer-bartomeu@uliege.be). Les séances ne font pas l’objet d’un enregistrement mais d’un court résumé sur le carnet de recherche dédié (https://pouvoirs.hypotheses.org/).

PROGRAMME

• 16 février 2024 - Jérémie Ferrer-Bartomeu, UCLouvain-ULiège/FNRS 
• 21 mars 2024 - Florence Bistagne, Avignon Université
• 26 avril 2024 - Nathanaël Valdman, EHESS
• 17 mai 2024 - Géraldine Cazals, Université de Bordeaux 
• 14 juin 2024 - Monique Weis, Université du Luxembourg 
• 11 septembre 2024 - Maud Hagelstein, ULiège/FNRS
• 20 septembre 2024 - Paul-Alexis Mellet, IHR/Université de Genève
• 18 octobre 2024 - Géraud Poumarède, Université Bordeaux Montaigne 
• 15 novembre 2024 - Guillaume Gaudin, Toulouse-II-Jean-Jaurès 
• 13 décembre 2024 - Marjorie Meiss, Université de Lille

More information can be found here.

BOOK: Mauricio da Costa MESURINI. O estado interventor no Brasil e seus reflexos no direito administrativo e constitucional (1930-1964): Themistocles Cavalcanti e sua contribuição doutrinária. (Dialética: 2021). 9786525201276 R$ 79,90

(Source: https://loja.editoradialetica.com/humanidades/o-estado-interventor-no-brasil-e-seus-reflexos-no-direito-administrativo-e-constitucional-1930-1964-themistocles-cavalcanti-e-sua-contribuicao-doutrinaria)

 O objetivo é analisar a formação do Estado Interventor no Brasil à luz da doutrina do jurista Themistocles Cavalcanti. A partir da década de 30, a intervenção estatal no Brasil expandiu-se substancialmente, aumentando as relações e tensões entre política e economia. As transformações operadas nas diferentes esferas sociais exigiram do mundo jurídico novas racionalizações, notadamente no direito constitucional e administrativo, que passaram a ser revistos para além das suas raízes teóricas pretensamente liberais. Assim, é preciso investigar as diferentes releituras, importações conceituais e modificações estruturais ocorridas nestes campos, a partir das diferentes fontes do direito, entre elas, a doutrina juspublicista. Pretende-se demonstrar que a crescente tendência à intervenção estatal fez com que a economia passasse a integrar mais abertamente a política e o direito, potencializando-se a dominação técnico-burocrática, refletindo na dinâmica da separação dos poderes, na regulação estatal das atividades públicas e privadas e na própria democracia. O Poder Executivo foi fortalecido, tanto na sua estrutura como nas suas competências, e houve um deslocamento do poder normativo em direção à Administração Pública. Estas transformações se operaram muitas vezes à margem dos textos constitucionais e com lastro na doutrina jurídica produzida na época. O estudo da obra do jurista Themistocles Cavalcanti nos permite testar esta hipótese. Trata-se, portanto, de um trabalho de história do direito.

BOOK: Livia Solana Pfuetzenreiter de Lima TEIXEIRA. Discursos sobre o interesse público na Primeira República: análise da doutrina de direito administrativo entre 1889-1930 (Dialética, 2021). 9786525208459 R$ 49,90

 

(Source: https://loja.editoradialetica.com/humanidades/discursos-sobre-o-interesse-publico-na-primeira-republica-analise-da-doutrina-de-direito-administrativo-entre-1889-1930)

Compreender o passado de uma nação é um processo trabalhoso. O passado em si é sempre uma realidade confusa e complicada, cujo estudo demanda seriedade e respeito às fontes primárias. Já o Direito Administrativo é um dos ramos do Direito Público que mais se aproxima das finalidades políticas do Estado, e seu estudo revela importantes considerações quando se busca compreender a construção estatal moderna, notadamente na complexa realidade brasileira. Partindo, assim, de uma perspectiva da História do Direito, a presente obra tem por objetivo investigar as práticas discursivas envolvendo o enunciado "interesse público" nas doutrinas de Direito Administrativo lançadas na Primeira República, entre os anos de 1889 e 1930. Isto porque, analisar o pensamento jurídico construído através da produção doutrinária lançada na Primeira República é importante à compreensão dos limites teóricos em que se movia a jurisdição do período. Partindo deste recorte temporal específico e fazendo uso da obra de Michel Foucault como referencial metodológico, o objetivo desta obra é analisar quais as relações de poder que atravessam o referido discurso de modo a construir a própria realidade nacional naquele período. Assim, num primeiro momento é tratado o referencial teórico de Michel Foucault, como os conceitos de discurso na verdade criam a realidade sobre a qual dizem descrever, depois é passado em revista o contexto político e social do período estudado, e por fim é realizada a análise direta de seis obras de Direito Administrativo lançadas no período, retirando trechos de todos os textos originais. Busca-se, assim, compreender a história do Direito Administrativo brasileiro e, consequentemente, repensar o processo de construção do Estado nacional. 

CALL FOR PAPERS. Administory Journal for the History of Public Administration / Zeitschrift für Verwaltungsgeschichte, Volume 7. Administrative Culture(s) of International Organizations

 

(Source: https://sciendo.com/journal/ADHI)

Administrative Culture(s) of International Organizations

AUGUST 17, 2021

ADMINISTORY is an Open Access online journal on the history of state and administration. Volume 7 is dedicated to the topic “Administrative Culture(s) of International Organizations”. International Organizations (IOs) have proliferated in the 19th and 20th centuries and spread across the globe in their various forms from intergovernmental, financial to non‑governmental organizations. They have received considerable attention in recent years as conveyors of internationalism, as a specific model of multilateral conflict resolution, as sites of diplomatic, economic, and military cooperation and contestation and as platforms for the circulation of knowledge, models and practices of governance between nation states.

However, this has overshadowed that IOs themselves constituted the object and product of knowledge transfers and cooperation (as well as conflict) as organizations staffed by actors trained and experienced in different legal systems, administrative decision-making processes, writing and filing routines, and hierarchical structures. IOs, therefore, faced the challenge to establish an administrative apparatus that could integrate or supersede different administrative practices.

IOs can, however, not be understood as composites of national administrative cultures resulting from a unidirectional knowledge transfer from national to international administration. Instead, the administrative internationalisms of IOs provide the opportunity to go beyond such methodological nationalism and investigate the role of subnational administrative bodies, specific branches as well as individual actors. Taking IOs’ role in the circulation of knowledge seriously also means to ask not only how IOs contributed to the dissemination of new administrative models and practices but also whether and when they adopted them for their own administrative bodies.

We invite contributions on

• intergovernmental (e.g. League of Nations, United Nations, Organization of African Unity/African Union), supranational (e.g. the EU and its predecessors), economic or financial (e.g. the COMECON, the IMF, World Bank) and internationally operating non‑governmental organizations (e.g. Amnesty International, Greenpeace);

• processes of change, continuities and ruptures in organizational culture during the 19th and 20th centuries, which were closely related to changes in the organizations’ political, social, and cultural environment.

 We particularly invite contributions that go beyond the ‘Global North’ and examine the role of actors from or IOs established in the ‘Global South’.

 ADMINISTORY sees itself as a platform to publish and discuss cutting-edge research on the history of administration. The journal, which appears once a year with double blind peer-review procedures, is interdisciplinary, transepochal and transnational as well as methodologically open. ADMINISTORY thus establishes itself as an interface between historical-cultural research and the debates on state and administration in the social sciences, law and political sciences. Contributions are published in German or English.

The issue will be edited in collaboration with Madeleine Herren-Oesch. If you would like to propose an article for this volume, please submit an abstract (max. 2,500 characters) including a title and a short CV by 30 September 2021 to thomas.rohringer@lmu.de. The selected authors will be notified in October; the deadline for submission of articles (max. 10,000 words, including footnotes) is 31 January 2022, an online authors’ workshop is planned at the end of February/beginning of March 2022.

Subsequently, the contributions will be reviewed in a double-blind peer-review process which will decide whether the texts are accepted for publication. Publication date for accepted texts is end of 2022.

More information: https://www.lhlt.mpg.de/notice/cfaadministory

JOURNAL: Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geographico Brazileiro (OPEN ACCESS)

 

The Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brazileiro, from Rio de Janeiro, one of the oldest historical journals in the world, has published its first number of 2021, with some papers of legal historical interest.

O DIREITO ADMINISTRATIVO E A EXPANSÃO DO ESTADO NA PRIMEIRA REPÚBLICA: NOTAS PRELIMINARES A UMA HISTÓRIA DA DOUTRINA ADMINISTRATIVISTA NO BRASIL | Airton Cerqueira-Leite Seelaender

CÂNDIDO MENDES DE ALMEIDA, HISTORIADOR DO DIREITO | Arnaldo Sampaio de Moraes Godoy

NOVOS CAMINHOS PARA O CÁRCERE: HUMANISMO PENITENCIÁRIO NO BRASIL OITOCENTISTA | Camila Similhana Oliveira de Souza

Source: https://www.ihgb.org.br/revista-eletronica/artigos-485.html 

 

JOURNAL: Journal for the History of Knowledge (Vol. 1, Issue 1)

 

(Source: JHOK)

For its first issue of December 2020, the JHoK published a special issue on the history of bureaucracies.

Special Issue

Bureaucracy as Knowledge

Sebastian Felten,  Christine von Oertzen

Chosŏn’s Office of Interpreters: The Apt Response and the Knowledge Culture of Diplomacy

Sixiang Wang

Making Public Knowledge—Making Knowledge Public: The Territorial, Reparative, Heretical, and Canonization Inquiries of Gui Foucois (ca. 1200–1268)

John Sabapathy

In Pursuit of “Useful” Knowledge: Documenting Technical Innovation in Sixteenth-Century Potosí

Renée Raphael

Caveat from the Archive: Pieter van Dam’s Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie and Crisis Management

The Bureaucratic Sense of the Forthcoming in Seventeenth-Century Istanbul

Harun Küçük

Sustainable Gains: Dutch Investment and Bureaucratic Rationality in Eighteenth-Century Saxon Mines

Sebastian Felten

A Crisis of Competence: Information, Corruption, and Knowledge about the Decline of the Qing State

Maura Dykstra

The Indaganda Survey of the Prussian Frontier: The Built World, Logistical Power, and Bureaucratic Knowledge in the Polish Partitions, 1772–1806

Kathryn M. Olesko

Shells and Order: Questionnaires on Indigenous Law in German New Guinea

Anna Echterhölter

Revenge of the Humdrum: Bureaucracy as Profession and as a Site of Science

Theodore Porter

 

More info here

BOOK: Giacinto DELLA CANANEA and Stefano MANNONI (Eds.). Administrative Justice Fin de siècle - Early Judicial Standards of Administrative Conduct in Europe (1890-1910) (Oxford: OUP, 2021). ISBN 9780198867562, 99.00 USD

 

(Source: OUP)

OUP is publishing an edited collection on European administrative law systems between 1890 and 1910.

ABOUT THE BOOK

The second volume in this series explores the evolution of administrative laws in Europe to better understand the foundations of EU institutions, focusing on the period of 1890-1910. These years saw both a growth of governments and either the entry into force or the consolidation of mechanisms of control on public authorities. Comparing the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Belgium, France, the German Empire, Italy, and the United Kingdom, this title focuses on their historical administrative actions and looks at their development during that time.

The volume contains three sections. The first introduces the project and the topic. The second covers the six legal systems chosen for this study, looking at the historical context. The third takes a comparative approach across the six systems, following on from their histories to look at their development and legacies. This edited collection expands on the ideals of a common core within European administrative law and how they have shaped our world.

This volume is an essential tool for anyone involved in administrative and constitutional law and legal history.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Giacinto della Cananea is a professor and leading authority on EU administrative law and comparative administrative law. His publications include five monographs, 20 edited volumes, and over 150 articles, book chapters, and comments to judicial decisions on national and EU administrative law, global administrative law, and public finances. He is a co-ordinator of ReNEUAL, and a member of the European Group of Public Law, the European Constitutional Law Network, the Societas Juris Public Europei, and the Dornburg Group of Administrative Law.

Stefano Mannoni is full professor of legal history at the University of Florence. He has published mainly on history of public law, notably history of state and centralization building in France and history of public international law. He served from 2005 to 2012 as a regulator of the Italian audio-visual and telecommunications industry and since then he has written extensively on the topic of law and technology. In 2013, he was appointed a member of the commission for the reform of the Italian constitution.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
1. Commonality and Diversity in Administrative Justice: Fin de siècle, Giacinto della Cananea
The Legal Systems Selected for Comparative Analysis
2. Standards of Judicial Review of Administrative Action in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Angela Ferrari Zumbini
3. The Administration and the Judge: Pragmatism in Belgian Case Law, Yseult Marique
4. The Judicial Elaboration of Standards for Public Administrations in France, Jérémy Mercier
5. Standards of Judicial Review of Administrative Action in the German Empire, Lilly Weidemann
6. Initial Investigation on Excess of Power: Judicial Review of Administrative Action in Italy, Alessandra Bassani
7. The Historical Foundations of Judicial Review in the United Kingdom, Conor McCormick
Comparative Studies
8. Liberal Democracies and the Control of Virtue: The Weakening of Representative Regimes and the Expansion of the Judiciary, Leopoldo A Moscoso
9. Judicial Review of Administrative Action: A Brief Comparison between the Austro-Hungarian and German Empires, Luca De Lucia
10. The Development of Administrative Law in the United Kingdom, Robert Thomas
11. The Formation of the Italian Administrative Justice System, European Common Principles of Administrative Law, and 'Jurisdictionalisation' of Administrative Justice in the 19th Century, Marco Mazzamuto
12. The Administrative World of Yesterday, Stefano Mannoni

 

More info here

BOOK: Gian Paolo TRIFONE, La scienza dell’amministrazione di Federico Persico. Scritti scelti (Napoli: Editoriale Scientifica, 2020). ISBN: 9788893917315, pp. 178, € 15,00

(Source: Editoriale Scientifica)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Collana: IusRegni. Collana di Storia del diritto medievale, moderno e contemporaneo.

Federico Persico (1829-1919), letterato, avvocato, docente universitario impegnato attivamente nelle vicende politiche e culturali napoletane a cavallo dell’Unità d’Italia, è stato l’ultimo esponente della scuola partenopea del diritto pubblico ad affermarne il primato di un indirizzo culturale autoctono. Il giurista concepisce la scienza dell’amministrazione come disciplina atta a fornire le ragioni stesse del diritto positivo. Il modello ordinamentale da lui teorizzato, di un self-government rispettoso del vertice istituzionale, risente dell’influenza vichiana e nondimeno delle dottrine hegeliane, pur filtrate da una salda coscienza religiosa. Per la denuncia di un’amministrazione accentrata senza adeguato riguardo delle specificità “naturali” di comunità e territori; ed in base alle sue originalissime proposte di una rappresentanza organica degli interessi in Parlamento, Federico Persico sarebbe stato considerato un anticipatore del sindacalismo “istituzionalizzato”, contro il sindacalismo rivoluzionario. La selezione dei suoi scritti, che attraversano un lungo periodo della storia italiana e in particolare di quella del Mezzogiorno, offre di tutto ciò sensibile testimonianza.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gian Paolo Trifone è attualmente professore associato di Storia del diritto medievale e moderno presso il dipartimento di Giurisprudenza dell’Università degli Studi di Salerno.

More information with the publisher.

BOOK: Lukas LEMCKE, Bridging Center and Periphery : Administrative Communication from Constantine to Justinian (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020). ISBN 978-3-16-158945-4, 69.00 EUR

(Source: Mohr Siebeck)

Brill is publishing a new book on administrative communication channels in the late Roman Empire.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Lukas Lemcke challenges the conventional understanding of the Late Roman administration as a three-tiered system by demonstrating that its hierarchy of communication was distinctly two-tiered. In so doing, he offers a new perspective on the functional and organizational structure of this administrative system and advances our understanding of the vicariate by introducing a new functional dimension and by reassessing its development during the fifth and early sixth centuries. Based on a comprehensive collection of legal, epigraphic and other literary documents to which the concept of »formal communication« is applied, the author explores the forms and development of administrative communication channels that facilitated the official exchange of information from Constantine to Justinian and thus reveals how emperors actively sought to regulate the centripetal and centrifugal flow of official information.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lukas Lemcke Born 1990; 2012 BA (Classical Studies) and 2013 MA (Ancient Mediterranean Cultures), University of Waterloo, Canada; 2014–19 PhD studies in Ancient History, University of Cologne.

The table of contents can be found here

More info here

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Research Fellowship in the field of European Administrative History (MPI for European Legal History) (DEADLINE: 30 September 2020)

(Source: MPI for European Legal History)

We learned of a call for applicants for the JEV Fellowship for European Administrative History at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History. Here the call:

"JEV-Fellowship for European Administrative History"

At the end of 2012 Prof. Dr. Erk Volkmar Heyen, who served as Professor of Public Law and European Administrative History at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald until his retirement and as editor of the “Jahrbuch für europäische Verwaltungsgeschichte/Yearbook of European Administrative History” (JEV), which ran from 1989 to 2008, endowed a research fellowship in the field of European Administrative History ("The JEV-Fellowship for European Administrative History"). The fellowship falls within the framework of the German University Foundation (Bonn, Germany).

The scholarship is intended to benefit the next generation of researchers, particularly doctoral and post-doctoral students, to enable them to complete their research project in as brief a period as possible, ordinarily up to a maximum of 6 months. The scholarship is based on the usual rates for doctoral fellowships of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Should a fellowship be awarded to a researcher outside Germany, local scholarship rates will be taken into consideration. Marital status will not be taken into account, nor will travel or overhead costs be reimbursed.

The Board of the German University Foundation awards the fellowship on the recommendation of a jury, which is based at the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (MPIeR) in Frankfurt.

Early stage researchers from Germany and abroad are invited to apply. In accordance with the thematic and methodological spectrum covered by the JEV, the scholarship is open to all historical disciplines, provided the research project addresses an aspect of European administrative history or history of administrative law from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. The relevance of the research topic should not be restricted to a particular national context. Comparative research questions are particularly welcome. It is expected that the research results will be published.

Applications for a scholarship commencing in January 2021 can be submitted until 30 September 2020. Applications in English or German should be sent in electronic form to: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Peter Collin, collin@rg.mpg.de. The application, which must also indicate  the intended duration of the fellowship, should include: a tabular CV with details on the applicant’s university education with copies of examination results and diplomas to be enclosed, a list of academic publications, where applicable; a detailed description of the research project including a detailed outline of the intended structure of the resulting book, a detailed report on the current state of the project and writing progress, including the reasons for any delay in its completion; extensive excerpts from the manuscript; information on the project’s previous,  current and planned financing arrangements; a precise timetable to complete the manuscript within the duration of the fellowship. Furthermore, at least one expert opinion on the research project and a personal reference from a university lecturer are to be submitted directly to the jury.

The MPIeR provides fellowship recipients with the opportunity to work in its library. Fellows are given the opportunity to present and discuss their research projects with members of the Institute. Upon expiration of the fellowship, the recipient is to submit a report on the status of the manuscript. The MPIeR provides for the publication of the manuscript in one of its book series, assuming it meets internal and scientific standards. The book is to acknowledge the support provided by the “JEV-Fellowship for European Administrative History” in the masthead or in the preface.

All info can be found here

BOOK: Walter GUANDALINI JR. Raízes Históricas do Direito Administrativo Brasileiro: Fontes do Direito Administrativo na Doutrina Brasileira do Século XIX (1857-1884). (Curitiba: Appris Editora, 2019). 95 pages. ISBN 978-85-473-3642-4, R$ 56.

(Image source: https://www.editoraappris.com.br/image.php/produtos/1570717071-artboard-5-100.jpg*255*340*C)

Abstract: Ainda são poucas as pesquisas empíricas acerca das características do pensamento jurídico desenvolvido no Brasil após a independência, e ainda menor é a quantidade dos estudos específicos sobre a história do direito administrativo no país. Este livro pretende contribuir com esse trabalho, empregando o método da análise de conteúdo para identificar, na doutrina nacional do século XIX, as “raízes históricas” do direito administrativo brasileiro. O exame das fontes jurídicas indicadas como referências pelos grandes administrativistas do período – juristas como José Antônio Pimenta Bueno, Vicente Pereira do Rego, Prudêncio Giraldes Tavares da Veiga Cabral, Paulino José Soares de Sousa, Francisco Maia de Souza Furtado de Mendonça, Antônio Joaquim Ribas e José Rubino de Oliveira – contribuiu para uma compreensão mais precisa do processo de formação do direito administrativo brasileiro, tornando possível avaliar o tipo de diálogo que o saber jurídico erudito estabelecia com outros campos de circulação do direito público, os seus padrões de relação com a cultura jurídica estrangeira e com a cultura jurídica pré-moderna, e as especificidades do discurso jurídico publicista em relação aos textos de direito privado. Com isso podemos entender melhor as características e as funções atribuídas ao direito administrativo pela cultura de transição que marcou o pensamento jurídico brasileiro do século XIX.

Walter Guandalini Jr. is professor of legal history at the Universidade Federal do Paraná.

More information: https://www.editoraappris.com.br/produto/3393-razes-histricas-do-direito-administrativo-brasileiro-fontes-do-direito-administrativo-na-doutrina-brasileira-do-sculo-xix-1857-1884

BOOK: Thomas PERROUD et al., eds., Les grands arrêts de la jurisprudence administrative (Paris: Librairie LGDJ, 2019). ISBN 978-2-275-06547-2, 44.00 EUR

(Source: Librairie LGDJ)

We learned of the publication of the edited collection “Les grands arrêts politiques de la jurisprudence administrative”.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Dans L'État, le droit objectif et la loi positive, publié en 1901, Léon Duguit écrit :

« Il est temps d'en finir avec cette séparation de la politique et du droit, qui depuis trop longtemps est invoquée pour couvrir les tyrannies de tout ordre. La politique peut être une branche de l'art juridique ; elle n'est pas distincte du droit ». C'est à cet appel que le présent ouvrage a souhaité répondre : relire la production jurisprudentielle en traitant le juge administratif comme un acteur politique à part entière. Si l'analyse politique du droit administratif est ancienne, l'ambition a été d'envisager la question sous un angle différent, en l'abordant à partir d'une analyse des décisions elles-mêmes : alors que les commentateurs tendent le plus souvent à euphémiser la portée politique des arrêts, il s'est agi de la mettre en évidence, en s'interrogeant sur la démarche suivie par le juge, en relevant l'ensemble des contraintes qui enserrent son raisonnement. Le projet s'inscrit ainsi dans une forme de renouveau de la science du droit administratif : il permet d'éclairer sous un jour différent certains grands arrêts mais aussi de donner toute leur importance à d'autres décisions méconnues. Les contributions réunies ici s'inscrivent dans la perspective d'un positivisme critique, s'attachant à souligner la dimension politique de la jurisprudence sans prendre pour autant parti sur la pertinence des solutions adoptées.
Ainsi conçu l'ouvrage doit permettre aux étudiants d'aborder à tous les niveaux l'étude du droit administratif en allant au-delà de la seule technique juridique.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Thomas Perroud, qui a dirigé l'ouvrage, est professeur à l'Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas et membre du Centre d'études et de recherches de sciences administratives et politiques (CERSA).
Il s'est entouré de Jacques Caillosse et Jacques Chevallier , professeurs émérites de l'Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas (CERSA) et Danièle Lochak,
professeure émérite de l'Université Paris-Nanterre (CREDOF).

Avec les contributions de : Aurélien Antoine, Grégoire Bigot, Charles Bosvieux-Onyekwelu, Jean-François Boudet, Guillaume Boudou, Jacques Caillosse, Gwénaële Calvès, Jacques Chevallier, Claude Didry, Xavier Dupré de Boulois, Stéphanie Hennette-Vauchez, Laetitia Janicot, Geneviève Koubi, Tiphaine Le Yoncourt, Aurelle Levasseur, Jean-Arnaud Mazères, Daniel Mockle, Claire Mongouachon, Thomas Perroud, Jean-Charles Rotoullié, François Saint-Bonnet, Catherine Teitgen-Colly, Marta Torre-Schaub, Mathieu Touzeil-Divina, Georges Vayrou, Katia Weidenfeld.

More info here

PROJECT PRESENTATION: Digital Humanities and Legal History. Can the computer read and classify ordinances ? By dr. C.A. ROMEIN (UGent/KB)

(image source: Dr. C.A. Romein)

As Researcher-in-Residence at the KB National Library of the Netherlands (The Hague), I – Annemieke Romein – I look for early modern norms in books of ordinances (‘plakkaatboeken’). These books hold mainly administrative laws, varying from norms against beggars, safety, but also laws intended to stimulate the economy, and international treaties are frequently included too. Together with colleagues at the library, we are looking for means to have the computer take over the process of categorising these texts. The question is: Can a computer recognise the texts containing rules, and distinguish between texts on religion, maintenance of dykes, colonial affairs, etc.?

Currently, I work as a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University, where I focus on both handwritten and printed norms from the Low Countries. My current project (called: ‘Law and Order: Low Countries?!’) focuses on the federation-states of Flanders and Holland between 1576 (Pacification of Ghent) and 1702 (Spanish War of Succession). Initially, I am looking at the topics of the published norms. Personally, I find the rules on safety and security most intriguing as the topics are still relevant today, however, when you are interested in a selection of the texts, it is necessary to go through all of them. This gave rise to my initial question of whether the computer can be trained on the process of distinguishing texts from one another. I am very grateful for the chance to work at the Dutch National Library and on my project ‘Entangled Histories’ for six months.

My interest in the topic of legal history – more specifically Policeygesetzgebung and Policeywissenschaften (police norms) – was peaked in 2005 when I was looking for a Bachelor thesis topic. Professor Robert von Friedeburg had me read some German articles (Karl Härter/ Michael Stolleis, Policey im Europa der Frühen Neuzeit (Frankfurt 1996)) which gave – at that time – the impression that norms required a strong authoritarian type of rule: a top-down approach that one could only find in principalities or city-states. I was asked why similar texts were available in books of ordinances in the Netherlands, and this question has gradually evolved into my current projects.

Image 1. City crier, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, by Cornelis Dusart, 1776; etching, h 201mm × w 155mm. Source: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.165473

Ordinances, what are they?

In the early modern period – rules were announced by the city crier. He walked through the city, or rode a horse, to visit indicated locations to read new rules to the inhabitants. After reading them aloud, the printed texts were fixed to “well-known places” (e.g. church doors, at the market square) for people to be able to reread them. An estimated 70% of people could read in the Republic, so for the remainder of the inhabitants having the new rules read aloud was still very important. The rules had to make sense so people could remember them by heart. Hence, there is a repetitiveness in the texts – which makes sense given that the 16^th and 17^th century had an important oral tradition.

Ordinances, or placards, were affixed to known places. This made them official. The provincial estates considered it to be important to print a selection of their agreed-upon texts in books of ordinances. These formed a source for lawyers as a reference work. These books do not form a complete overview, but they do give a sense of what government officials deemed important.

Image 2A The New Church in Amsterdam, Anonymous, 1693 – 1694. Etching, h 273mm × w 353mm. Bron: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.232576

Image 2B Detail: ordinances near the church doors.

Normative rules within a federation

The Dutch Republic, like the Habsburg Netherlands, were federations of autonomous states. In the Republic, the Estates-General held sovereign powers and in each of the federation-states the estates held the highest power.[1] [1]The Republic’s Stadtholder(s) was/were officially civil servants. The Habsburg Netherlands differed from the Republic as they had a sovereign prince (the King of Spain), though the federation-states did have a certain amount of freedom. They had to verify new rules did not jeopardise traditions and customs. Yet, when you look in many history books the scene is depicted as a game of thrones. This results in poorly studied political-institutional constellations of republics (the Republic and Switzerland alike). I find this very intriguing: we actually know too little to say something concrete about how federation-states without a prince were ruled! While Belgium is a long tradition of republishing the rules through the Royal Commission for the Publication of Ancient Laws and Ordinances (since 1846), the Netherlands does not hold such an institute. Such publications offer a rich source of information.

The differences between norms in Holland and Flanders

In the Netherlands, we do not have an overview of what laws were published and, hence, we cannot say anything substantial about the legislation in the Low Countries, or differences among the federation-states, or even in comparison with other areas in Europe. This is fascinating because my current research in Ghent gives rise to the suspicion that the differences between Holland and Flanders – both very trade-oriented – were not that big. Hence, my current hypothesis is that there was little differences between an indirect-ruled princely state and the federation-state Holland (as part of the Dutch Republic).

Computer techniques

In order to study the potential differences, the first step in the project is to analyse the layout of the pages and enhance the readability of the early modern texts. As humans, we can read the texts fairly well, but gothic fonts prove to be more challenging than roman fonts. The computer does not mind, rather it considers it a challenge. Within the Google Books project an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) has been applied, but, when you attempt to copy the texts (to a notepad for example) it will render useless due to the numerous errors.

These errors directly influence the searchability of the texts, even if you are only looking for keywords. In order to improve this, we apply Handwritten Text Recognition. This technique is developed within the European funded READ-project, which resulted in the application called Transkribus. The computer program is trained through manual transcriptions of a single hand, or, in our case, a font. Through this training, the computer learns how certain characters are represented. Furthermore, the program places the characters within a context by looking at complete lines instead of individual characters. This is called an N-Gram, which remembers the most frequent character combinations (such as a ‘q’ is always followed by a ‘u’).

We basically fool the computer by claiming that our printed sources are very regular handwriting, which will enormously help with recognition. I heard about these techniques before, but I had never applied them to printed texts. I became curious about whether they would be as successful as claimed. Would this work on the 108 books of ordinances that we retrieved from various digital collections? So far the results are giving us hope, and a reason to believe we can apply other techniques to analyse individual texts. Where I am currently still hand-labelling the individual texts in Ghent, the question arises whether the computer can do this also. I use the same categories as the Repertorium der Policeyordnungen-project once did, so that the datasets can merge at some point through LinkedData analysis. Can the High-Performance Computer (Artificial Intelligence) with the program Annif read through the texts and spot words that triggered me into categorising them  in a certain way? Then, apply this to other books of ordinances? While working at the KB, I hope to find the answer to this question.

  

Image 3a The Paalhuis and the New Bridge (Amsterdam) during the winter, by Jan Abrahamsz. Beerstraten, 1640 – 1666. Oil Painting, h 84cm × w 100cm.

Source: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5966

Image 3b Detail with ordinances on the wall of the Paalhuis.

This blog was previously published – in an altered version – in Dutch at https://www.kb.nl/blogs/digitale-geesteswetenschappen/plakkaten-classificeren-met-de-computer

Read more:

·        Andrea Iseli, Gute Policey: öffentliche Ordnung in der frühen Neuzeit (UTB GmbH, 2009).

·        Toomas Kotkas, Royal Police Ordinances in Early Modern Sweden: The Emergence of Voluntaristic Understanding of Law (Brill, Leiden/ Boston 2013).

·        Stolleis, M. (2000). Was bedeutet "Normdurchsetzung" bei Policeyordnungen der Frühen Neuzeit? In R. H. Helmholz (Ed.), Grundlagen des Rechts. Festschrift für Peter Landau zum 65. Geburtstag (pp. 739-757). Paderborn: Schöningh.

---

[1] The English translation province for the Dutch word gewest might be misleading, as it has the connotation of being subordinate to another entity – while the Low Countries’ provinces were basically federation-states hence I have given a preference to use this later term.