Ruffert, Matthias --- "Remarks on the language of administrative law scholarship in the EU" [2017] ELECD 415; in Harlow, Carol; Leino, Päivi; della Cananea, Giacinto (eds), "Research Handbook on EU Administrative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 69

Book Title: Research Handbook on EU Administrative Law

Editor(s): Harlow, Carol; Leino, Päivi; della Cananea, Giacinto

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781784710675

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Remarks on the language of administrative law scholarship in the EU

Author(s): Ruffert, Matthias

Number of pages: 10

Abstract/Description:

Suppose a complete outsider was given the task to choose the preferred language for academic research in EU administrative law. The conditions of choice are ideal: Legal materials are available in all official languages of the European Union, potential translations are only a mouse-click away, whether the Treaties, secondary legislation or judgments of the ECJ. Possible criteria could be the number of administrative jurisdictions in which the language was influential (and this might lead to French) or the absolute number of native speakers (which would be in favour of German), and it could even be considered which system of administrative law was the most sophisticated one (which would lead to interesting research). Such an outsider would certainly exclude the language of a nation where European integration is generally seen with a certain suspicion, which has explicitly rejected the Euro as a currency (negating Article 3 (4) TEU) and whose government has organized a referendum in which by a small majority of the UK decided to leave the Union. And with respect to administrative law, the choice could be directed by past statements, the first, 100 years old, from the celebrated English author, AV Dicey, who thought ‘it would be a grave mistake … to suppose that there exists … as yet … any real administrative law’ in Englandand the second, 50 years old, from Lord Reid, a leading judge, who said of English law, ‘We do not have a developed system of administrative law – perhaps because until fairly recently we did not need it.