Suchergebnisse

La « Lecture » commence avec quelques réflexions préalables et prescriptions définitionnelles à propos de la conception de l'auteur de la nature, du contenu et de l'objet des sciences administratives – de quoi elles se composent et quels sont leurs objectifs. Suit ensuite un rapide voyage à travers le temps, qui débutera au cours de la première moitié du XVIII e siècle, au cours duquel nous présenterons l'évolution des sciences administratives en faisant appel à une métaphore du trafic routier pour illustrer la mesure dans laquelle le sujet a gagné en volume et en complexité sous l'effet de l'industrialisation et de la mondialisation. Ensuite, la lecture s'appuiera plus particulièrement sur le mode de développement relativement particulier au pays de l'auteur, le Royaume-Uni, pour formuler quelques observations plus générales. Le « chemin » qui est emprunté n'est pas une ligne droite et l'auteur a effectivement dû se montrer très sélectif dans les événements marquants qu'il a choisi de mettre en avant en cours de route. Dans la seconde moitié de son exposé, il fera le point sur l'issue de ce parcours aujourd'hui et tentera d'émettre quelques hypothèses sur ce qui nous attend demain. La lecture se terminera par quelques réflexions sur la façon de gérer la diversité et le volume du trafic intellectuel qui compose les sciences administratives – en s'intéressant plus particulièrement au rôle des instituts nationaux et internationaux d'administration publique.

This lecture begins with some preliminary reflections and definitional prescriptions about the nature, content and purpose of the administrative sciences – what they consist of and what purposes they serve. This is followed by a brisk journey through time, starting in the first half of the 18th century, outlining the development of the administrative sciences, using a road traffic metaphor to describe how the volume and complexity of the subject has grown in response to industrialization and globalization. The lecture draws in particular on the rather peculiar pattern of development in the author's own country – the UK – as a basis for some more general observations. The 'road' that is followed is not a straight one and the author has been very selective in the landmarks that he has chosen to point out along the way. The latter part of the lecture takes stock of where this journey has taken us and offers some tentative speculations about where the road might lead in the future. It concludes with some thoughts about how the diversity and volume of intellectual traffic that constitutes the administrative sciences might be managed – with special reference to the role of national and international institutes of public administration.

The machinery of UK governance, including many aspects of the legal system, has undergone a lot of important changes in the last decade or so. Some of these changes have been driven by 'New Public Management' ideas about the need to increase 'efficiency, effectiveness and economy', to sharpen public accountability and to improve the quality of customer service in the administration of justice - as has been happening with other parts of the public service sector. Some important reforms (notably devolution of functions to elected administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998) have been parts of a wider political agenda of modernising Britain's antiquated 'unwritten' constitution. Some of the most senior judges themselves, a category of office holder once regarded as doctrinally opposed to any kind of radical change, have become articulate champions of reform and have carved out new, high profile managerial roles for themselves, as well as becoming markedly more 'activist' in the public law and human rights arena when sitting on the Bench.

Parliamentary sovereignty, meaning that the validity of Acts of Parliament cannot be challenged in the courts, has long been a core principle of the uncodified British Constitution. Much of the political controversy in the 1960s and '70s about UK membership of the European Communities focused on the transfer of law-making functions to the EC Commission and the Council of Ministers. The role of the European Court of Justice, and the possibility that both the ECJ and the UK's own domestic courts might entertain challenges to domestic primary legislation, on the grounds of its incompatibility with EC law, was largely overlooked. It was not until the mid-1980s that British 'Eurosceptics' began to realise that the courts might pose a challenge to parliamentary sovereignty. A turning point was the Factortame litigation, in which the ECJ reaffirmed that domestic legislation that conflicts with EC legal obligations must be disapplied. A decade later, in the 'metric martyrs' case, a British court, without referring the issue to the ECJ, decided an important principle of EC law. Both these cases – the focus for much political lobbying – underline the extent to which the courts have acquired a much higher political profile in the UK than they have had in the past.

Parliamentary sovereignty, meaning that the validity of Acts of Parliament cannot be challenged in the courts, has long been a core principle of the uncodified British Constitution. Much of the political controversy in the 1960s and '70s about UK membership of the European Communities focused on the transfer of law-making functions to the EC Commission and the Council of Ministers. The role of the European Court of Justice, and the possibility that both the ECJ and the UK's own domestic courts might entertain challenges to domestic primary legislation, on the grounds of its incompatibility with EC law, was largely overlooked. It was not until the mid-1980s that British 'Eurosceptics' began to realise that the courts might pose a challenge to parliamentary sovereignty. A turning point was the Factortame litigation, in which the ECJ reaffirmed that domestic legislation that conflicts with EC legal obligations must be disapplied. A decade later, in the 'metric martyrs' case, a British court, without referring the issue to the ECJ, decided an important principle of EC law. Both these cases – the focus for much political lobbying – underline the extent to which the courts have acquired a much higher political profile in the UK than they have had in the past.