There have been many presentations of French administrative law to an
English-speaking audience since Dicey wrote more than 135 years ago. The
most comprehensive coverage was last written more than twenty years ago.
One of the co-authors was an author of that edition of Brown and Bell, French
Administrative Law (5th edition). A lot has changed in that time, not least the
importance of the European dimension in French law (and its decline in
English law). It seemed best to both of the present authors to start a contemporary
presentation of French administrative law from a clean slate.
As we explain in Chapter 1, the importance of French constitutional law,
European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights has
reshaped French administrative law in the past fifty years. In their turn, French
administrative lawyers have also contributed to shaping these influential
sources of law. French administrative law is less a self-standing branch of
law than it once was.