The Law of the Constitution1

The seventh edition of Professor Dicey's well-known volume presents, as its most notable feature, an entirely new chapter on the droit administratif. All the previous editions have contained a chapter with this heading, but the doctrines set forth have, within the last half-dozen years, aroused so much adverse criticism that Professor Dicey has reëxamined the whole subject anew and has restated his views in what now constitutes one of the most valuable chapters of a notable book.The study of administrative law, as a branch of public law, has in recent years obtained increased recognition, and with this has come especial interest in the administrative law of France; for in that country the system has obtained its fullest development. There the evolution has been steady and although it has passed through several stages, is not yet completed. From the beginning of the nineteenth century France has had, for the determination of administrative litigation (the contentieux administratif, as it is termed) a system of special courts separate and distinct from the regular courts of the land. Other countries of continental Europe have more recently established similar courts, it is true, but in none of these is the jurisidiction of such courts as extensive as it is in the administrative courts of the French republic.