Two bedrock constitutional principles govern the scope and limits of administrative law: the Separation of Powers and the Rule of Law.
1. Separation of Powers
Originating in the writings of French philosopher Montesquieu, this doctrine asserts that liberty is endangered if the same person or body exercises legislative, executive, and judicial powers. It has three aspects:
- The same person should not form part of more than one branch.
- One branch should not control or interfere with another.
- One branch should not exercise the functions of another.
Strict vs. Flexible Application:
- United States: Implements a strict separation, accompanied by a robust system of checks and balances (e.g., Presidential veto, Congressional override, and judicial review).
- United Kingdom: No strict separation, as the executive (Cabinet) is drawn directly from the legislature (Parliament), maintaining close fusion.
- India: The Constitution does not incorporate a rigid separation of powers. However, it maintains a broad constitutional demarcation of functions (Supreme Court in Ram Jawaya Kapur v. State of Punjab, 1955). The judiciary holds that judicial review is part of the basic structure (Kesavananda Bharati), ensuring that the executive cannot usurp judicial roles.
2. A.V. Dicey's Rule of Law
In his landmark book Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution (1885), English jurist A.V. Dicey formulated three pillars of the Rule of Law:
- Supremacy of Law: Absolute supremacy of regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power or wide discretionary authority.
- Equality before Law: Equal subjection of all classes of citizens to the ordinary law of the land administered by the ordinary law courts. Dicey strongly opposed the French system of separate administrative courts (Droit Administratif), believing it gave government officials unfair privilege.
- Predominance of Legal Spirit: Constitutional rights are not merely written in a code, but are the result of judicial decisions protecting individual liberties in actual cases.
Dicey completely misunderstood the French Conseil d'Etat, which actually protected citizens far better against state overreach than English courts. Furthermore, Dicey failed to foresee that the rise of the welfare state would make wide administrative discretion and delegated legislation absolutely unavoidable.
3. Rule of Law in India
In India, the Rule of Law is built into the basic structure of the Constitution under Article 14 (Equality before law) and Article 21 (Right to life and personal liberty, requiring fair, just, and reasonable procedures as established in Maneka Gandhi v. Union of India, 1978).