Administration and the Law
| Author | William O. Hart |
| Date | 01 July 1936 |
| Published date | 01 July 1936 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1936.tb02440.x |
Administration and the
Law
By
WILLIAM
0.
HART,
B.C.L.,
M.A.
[Pafier read at
a
meeting
of
the Shefleld
Group
of
the Institute
of
Pwblic
Administration,
February,
19361
HE
relation between law and administration is essentially
a
T
modern problem, largely
the
result
of
the rapid
growth
during
the last century in the functions undertaken by the State. In the
eighteenth century the. activities that could be called administrative
were few
in
number. The Government administered the compam-
tively few affairs
of
State under
the
watchful eye
of
Parliament.
An
effective scheme
of
local authorities was unknown and what
local
internal affairs required routine supervision were usually placed under
the control
of
justices
of
the peace
or
elective parish officers. The
age of the administrator had not yet arrived. The rudiments
of
his
work were undertaken by bodies in form judicial
or
by local
inhabitants
serving
their turn, inexperienced and unpaid.
During
the
last
century all
this
has been profoundly changed. The
problems presented by the change
of
an agricultural
to
an industrial
society, with
its
consequent increase
of
town population, demanded
for
their
solution
the creation
of
an efficient machinery
of
local
administrative
bodies.
In
turn
this machinery showed the necessity
of
a
centralised control and led to the increase in the administrative
organs
of
the Central Government.
Public administration.
in
its
modern sense may be described as
the carrying into effect
of
the policy
of
the State.
It
does not, how-
ever, include the decision
of
the
major
problem
of
what State policy
shall seek to achieve, although within the limits of its activities public
administration does involve the exercise of more or less of discretion
and
even the creation
of
some
degree
of
policy. Administration,
in
other words,
is
subordinate action, and implies that it
is
carried on
within some framework
o€
organs and powers.
It
is
the purpose
of
this
paper to consider the nature of this framework and
its
effect
on the quality
of
the administration carried on within it.
In England this framework of public administration
is
provided
by the law.
This
bald statement may seem self-evident. The require-
ment
of
some authoritative rule, reccgnised
as
carrying with
it
the
301
E
To continue reading
Request your trial