Administrative Law for the 21st Century: Administrative Law on an Illiberal and Post-Democratic Context (2024)

By: Suzana Tavares da Silva

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Synopsis: The book provides a discursive reflection on the current challenges facing administrative law, based on a key idea: the defence of the liberal model of society.The author describes the content of her book as a turning point on the traditional standards of the rule of law and the way it impacts on the administrative state and administrative law. Considering the current use (and abuse) of emergency law by governments – based on economic crisis, environmental crisis, pandemic, and the economic situation caused by the Ukraine war – she devises a different balance or equilibrium on the usual separation of powers. Many reasons contribute to this turning point: i) the weaknesses of an open society easily swayed by social networks; ii) social “tribalism” replaces common good and general interest; iii) social tribalism leads to illiberal society, which causes illiberal democracies; iv) illiberal democracies lead to ungovernability which reinforces the role of the government, the emergency law, and some de facto measures.The author looks at many recent decisions from the ECJ and the ECHR and some constitutional and administrative courts, which extends the interest of this work to a wide range of professionals, from scholars to students, from judges to lawyers, filling the gap from an administrative law perspective of the current issues.