Kelemen, R. Daniel --- "Adversarial Legalism and Administrative Law in the European Union" [2010] ELECD 839; in Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, L. Peter (eds), "Comparative Administrative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Comparative Administrative Law

Editor(s): Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, L. Peter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446359

Section: Chapter 35

Section Title: Adversarial Legalism and Administrative Law in the European Union

Author(s): Kelemen, R. Daniel

Number of pages: 12

Extract:

35 Adversarial legalism and administrative law in
the European Union
R. Daniel Kelemen


European Union (EU) administrative law has tended to promote a juridification of
administrative procedures across the Union. This tendency seems puzzling because
for more than thirty years, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has emphasized that
member state legal systems enjoy `procedural autonomy' when implementing acts of
Community law, with regard to both the procedures involved and the remedies available
to citizens.1 And yet, despite this supposed procedural autonomy, the EU has developed
an extensive body of law guaranteeing European citizens a host of procedural rights
and increasingly forcing national authorities to respect common rules of administrative
procedure. This `Europeanization' of administrative law has pressed member states to
ensure greater transparency, accountability and access to justice in their administra-
tive processes and has encouraged more searching judicial review of administrative
action. The EU has developed an administrative law that applies both to itself when it
directly implements Community law and to national administrations when ­ as is more
common ­ they implement Community law on behalf of the EU. And ultimately, the
impact of European administrative law at the national level extends beyond instances
in which national authorities are implementing EU law. For once a procedural right or
remedy is granted in EU-related matters, it becomes difficult to withhold that right or
remedy in purely national matters. As Carol Harlow has put it, EU administrative law
`creates pressure for judicial resolution of every problem and denies its ...