Paper's abstract

Sandrine Pina, A glimpse into the general theory of administrative law of Adolf Merkl
Adolf Merkl (1890-1970) was one of Hans Kelsen’s first students at the Vienna School of Legal Theory. He applied the Pure Theory of Law to administrative law in his Treaty of general administrative law published in 1927 (Allgemeines Verwaltungsrecht). Merkl elaborated a general theory of administrative law from a strictly norma-tive point of view. In this major work, he intends to define the concept of administration compared with legislation and justice and considers the administration as a function of execution. He also works on the irregular act and the place of the discretionary power. He demonstrates that these two issues cannot be dissociated from the theory of the hierarchical struc-ture of the legal order and are not specific of the law of the administration.


Key Words : Administration – general theory of administrative law – hierarchy of norms – irregular act – discretionary power
t. 53, 2010 : p. 466-477

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