The Evolution of Law and the State in Europe

Most books about public power and the state deal with their subject from the point of view of legal theory, sociology or political science. This book, without claiming to deliver a comprehensive theory of law and state, aims to inform by offering a fresh reading of history and institutions, particularly as they have developed in continental Europe and European political and legal science. Drawing on a remarkably wide range of sources from both Western and Eastern Europe, the author suggests that only by knowing the history of the state, and state administration since the twelfth century, can we begin to comprehend the continuing importance of the state and public powers in modern Europe. In an era of globalization, when the importance of international law and institutions frequently lead to the claim that the state either no longer exists or no longer matters, the truth is in fact more complex. We now live in an era where the balance is shifting away from the struggle to build states based on democratic values, towards fundamental values existing above and beyond the borders of nations and states, under the watchful gaze of judges bound by the rule of law.

Auteur

Spyridon Flogaitis is currently Professor of Administrative Law at the University of Athens, Director of the European Public Law Organization, and an Attorney at Law of the Greek High Court and the Council of State. He is also a member of the Appeals Board of the European Space Agency. He was formerly President of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal (UNAT), Minister of the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization (Aug-Sept. 2007) and Minister of the Interior (Aug-Sept. 2009).He has a Degree in Law from Athens University, a Docteur en Droit from the University of Paris II (Pantheon-Assas), a Docteur en Histoire from the University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne), and a Diplome de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. He is Doctor honoris causa, at the National School of Political Science and Public Administration, Bucarest and at the Faculty of Law, University of Lisbon. He is also a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (French Republic), and Cavalliere del'Ordine di Merito (Italian Republic).During 2013 he was the Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science at the University of Cambridge.

Contenu

Lesson 1: From the Roman Empire to the Rebirth of Public Powers in Europe
The World becomes Roman
New Rome, Constantinople, and a New Europe
The New Religion, the Roman Empire and Europe
Charlemagne, Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, Constantinople
The Late Roman Empire and the Concept of State
Concluding Remarks
Lesson 2: Public Administration
Jus Politiae
Public Administration and Public Law
Public Administration and Fiskus
The Development of a Public Administration in England
Public Administration of States and other 'Public' or 'Private' Administrations
The Divide between Public Law and Private Law
Lesson 3: The 'Modern' State and its Foundations: The Rule of Law
The French Revolution of 1789 and the Rule of Law
The Ideas of AV Dicey, the Rule of Law and the Principle of Legality
The Rule of Law or Principle of Legality in Modern Times
Lesson 4: The Concept of the 'Modern' State
The French Concept of State
The German Concept of State
Lesson 5: From Decentralization to Devolution
Decentralization
Selbstverwaltung
From Federalism to Regionalism
Devolution
Lesson 6: The 'Modern' State: From the One-class State to the Multi-class State and its Evolution
The One-class State of the Nineteenth Century
Towards the Multi-class State
The Multi-class State
The Fascist State
The State of the Bolshevik Revolution
The Second World War and the Multi-class State
Democratic State, State of Law, Social State
The Classless State?
Lesson 7: The 'Modern' State Integrating in the International Community
A Fragmented and Simultaneously Integrated International Environment
The Reaction of the State, Crises, Reforms and the Gradual Constellation of Multi-level Public Power, both Nationally and Internationally
The Dilution of the States in the International Environment and the Rule of Law
Conclusions