Critical Studies
| DOI | 10.1177/002085236102700414 |
| Date | 01 December 1961 |
| Published date | 01 December 1961 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
456
CRITICAL
STUDIES
Court
Control
of
Administration
in
France
At
the
request
of
the
Polish
Academy
of
Sciences,
the
Professor
of
Administrative
Law
in
the
Jagellon
University
of
Cracow
has
pub-
lished
a
most
clear
and
accurate
description
( 1 )
in
Polish
of
the
organization,
functions
and
procedure
of
the
French
administrative
legal
system
(contentieux).
In
view
of
the
predominant
influence
of
the
decisions
of
the
administrative
courts
on
the
trends
and
devel-
opment
of
all
French
Administrative
Law,
the
author’s
subject,
apart
from
its
complex-
ity,
amounts
to
a
synopsis
of
that
branch
of
Law.
He
has
succeeded,
by
keeping
purpose-
ly
to
essentials,
in
briefly
presenting
the
key
problems
of
French
administrative
courts
in
a
simple
and
accessible
manner.
At
the
same
time,
he
has
selected
the
features
which
offer
the
greatest
interest
for
purposes
of
com-
parison
with
the
Law
of
his
own
country.
The
reader
of
the
book,
which
unfortunately
does
not
include
a
summary
in
a
foreign
language
and
is
consequently
closed
to
anyone
who
does
not
know
Polish,
will
easily
learn
from
it
all
that
is
required
for
an
understanding
of
French
administrative
conten.tieux.
Such
a
successful,
systematic
and
perfectly
clear
description
is
rarely
found
in
foreign
literatures.
To
keep
within
reasonable
limits
and
omit
unimpor-
tant
details,
and
yet
leave
out
nothing
fund-
amental,
the
author
had
to
undertake
some
very
searching
study.
He
should
be
congra-
tulated
on
the
result,
and
it
should
be
obser-
ved
that,
thanks
to
him,
the
Polish
admin-
istrative
literature
of
today
has
been
enriched
by
a
very
valuable
essay
whose
present
in-
terest
is
beyond
question.
There
is
now
in
Poland
a
reliable
source
of
information
on
the
subject,
and,
after
reading
it
carefully,
abso-
lutely
no
important
criticism
comes
to
mind.
A
few
slight
misunderstandings
or
second-
best
translations
of
technical
terms
in
no
way
detract
from
the
work
in
general
(2).
Thus,
i
when,
as
repeatedly
announced,
a
system
of
administrative
courts
is,
in
spite
of
all
dif-
ficulties,
reconstructed
in
Poland,
it
will
be
possible,
in
the
course
of
the
legislative
work,
to
become
familiar
with
the
French
admin-
istrative
legal
system.
This
seems
all
the
more
desirable
in
that
similar
essays
written
in
Poland
are
thirty
years
old,
and
therefore
partly
out-of-date.
The
tim.e
has
come
to
replace
them
by
a
new
analysis.
In
this
respect,
attention
should
first
be
drawn
to
the
fact
that
Professor
Brzezinski
points
out
the
importance
of
and
the
need
for
studies
in
Comparative
Law -
which
is
a
long
neglected
and
yet
essential
branch
of
legal
studies
-
« particularly
in
conjunction
with
the
creative
application
of
Marxism
».
In
view
of
the
mistrust
with
which
Com-
parative
Law
was
viewed
in
the
USSR
for
decades
and
the
inevitable
repercussions
of
that
state
of
affairs
in
the
People’s
Democra-
cies,
this change
of
attitude
is
certainly
symp-
tomatic.
The
author
realizes
that
his
work
does
not
directly
belong
to
Comparative
Law,
since
nothing
is
compared
in
it,
but
that
it
forms
an
essential
starting-point
-
the
study
of
foreign
Law -
without
which
no
com-
parison
can
be
made.
He
looks
upon
it
as
a
substitute
for
experimenting,
since
foreign
legal
institutions
are
nothing
but
the
expe-
rience
of
others
combined
with
given
condi-
tions,
from
which,
however,
conclusions
may
be
drawn
for
legislative
practice
in
one’s
own
country
and
for
legal
science.
In
that
con-
nection,
the
author
provides
us
with
a
very
good
model
for
presenting
foreign
experience
of
an
institution
of
Public
Law
in
operation,
for
use
by
the
Law
and
legal
theory
of
h.is
country.
This
essay
should
be
greeted
with
the
greatest
satisfaction,
not
only
be-
cause
the
author’s
talent
has
enabled
him
to
overcome
difficulties,
great
as
they
were,
with
complete
success,
but
also
because
the
fact
that
the
subject
was
on
the
programme
of
work
of
the
Institute
of
Legal
Sciences
of
(1)
Brzezinski,
Waclaw,
Sadowa
Kontrola
Adminis-
tracji
we
Francji
(Court
Control
of
Administration
in
France),
in
Polish.
Warsaw,
P.W.N.
Scientific
Publications
of
the
State,
1960.
174
pages.
(2)
For
instance,
the
author
writes
on
page
159
about
« conseillers
d’Etat
en
service
extraordinaire »
and
de-
scribes
them
as
« judges»
although,
by
definition,
they
do
not
belong
to
the
Contentieux
Section.
Again,
he
states
on
page
162
that
the
administrative
courts
« offer
one
of the
principal
openings »
for
the
graduates
of
the
National
School
of
Administration.
This
is
perhaps
mis-
leading,
since
the
comparatively
few
students
who
grad-
uate
in
the
highest
honours
group
may,
if
they
so
choose,
become
second-class
auditors
in
the Conseil
d’Etat.
More-
over,
when
discussing
« personal
faults »
and
« service
faults »
on
pages
35
ff.
and
74
he
should,
when
referring
to
traffic
accidents,
have
taken
into
account
the
provi-
sions
of
the
Act
of
31
December
1957
limiting
the
former
competence
of the
administrative
courts.
The
very
nature
of
these
minor
matters
suffices
to
prove
the
author’s
success
in
dealing
with
absolutely
all
the
basic
questions.
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