The French term ‘Droit Administratif has two meanings. Firstly, it means that part of the public law which deals with the organisation of the State; and secondly, it means the law which deals with the relations of the administrative authorities with the private citizens. It is in the second sense that it is used here and in which its English equivalent “Administrative Law” is understood.
Its meanings
Dicey has defined Administrative Law as “that body of rules which regulate the relations of the Administration or the administrative authority towards private citizens in their dealings with these officials as representatives of the State, and the procedure by which these rights and liabilities are enforced.” The Administrative Law is, therefore, that part of the French Law which regulates the relations of public officers and private citizens and determines:
The position and liabilities of all public officers
The rights and liabilities of private citizens in their dealings with pilblic officers as representatives of the State; and
The procedure by which these rights and liabilities are enforced
The disputes between the private citizens and public officers arise when the latter exercise their official authority in such a way as to violate the law or exceed the powers vested in them by law or do a wrong to a private citizen by acting arbitrarily. These disputes, however, will not go before an ordinary court and tried under the ordinary law of the land, as they would be under the Rule of Law, but before a special court, called the administrative court, consisting of superior administrative officers and under special laws, called the administrative law. The administrative courts, as Gettel says, “apply a special form of law and procedure, basing the decisions mainly on administrative ordinances, and taking into consideration political expediency and general considerations of justice.”
The French writer, Poincre, gives two illustrations of such disputes as, for example, when a person is asked by a tax officer to pay an unjustifiable increase in his income-tax, or when a railway company builds a railway line in front of a man’s house in such a way that it loses greater part of its value as a place of residence. These are the administrative actions which are to be settled by administrative courts under administrative law. These courts exist parallel to the ordinary courts, dealing with administrative cases while the latter deciding disputes between private citizens only.