Attempts of Defining the Terms “Administration” and “Administrative Law” in the Legal-Administrative Literature at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Abstract

Development of modern legal-administrative sciences in the 19^th century entailed the necessity of specifying their research subject and defining the basic terms. Among the latter ones, defining the terms “administration” and “administrative law”, along with specifying their basic features and functions, became the central issue. Attempts to define the term “administration” and specifying its legal essence came across the greatest difficulties. In the subject literature, the twofold approach to this matter was dominating. On tried to define “administration” in terms of object – as individuals or teams of individuals performing administrative functions, bodies or other administrating units, or in terms of subject (functional) – associating the term “administration” with the activity of these individuals or their teams, bodies and administrating units or with the activity of the state and other entities of public authorities. Definitions in terms of subject associated the term “administration” with the team of individuals combined into a certain organizational entirety due to common goals, entrusted with some range of governing powers. In this approach, the starting point was a man acting within a framework of a specific organizational structure. Whereas under the subject definitions, references were made to various spheres of state activity, emphasising that administration is not only an implementation of acts but also a creative activity, being one of the forms of performing the state function, consisting in the direct, practical performance of state tasks.