THE DOCTRINE OF ADMINISTRATIVE TRESPASS IN FRENCH LAW: AN ANALOGUE OF DUE PROCESS

The French droit administratif, since Dicey's critical and unsympathetic comments in his lectures and works on the English constitution, has continued to attract a great deal of interest in the English-speaking world. In this country the more recent references to the system known by that name are prompted by something more than academic curiosity. Unprecedented expansion of administrative activity, particularly on the part of the federal government, has focused attention on many problems which have become acute because of that fact. Unquestionably, one of the most vexing among them is the question of review of administrative action upon the application of interested private parties.

It is natural that the solutions found elsewhere should be inquired into, and that the French system of adjudication by special administrative courts should receive particular consideration. However, if French administrative law is identified with this one characteristic, while other important features of the system are left unnoticed, the view obtained is necessarily incomplete and distorted.