Good Administration and the Council of Europe: Law, Principles, and Effectiveness examines the existence and effectiveness of written and unwritten standards of good administration developed within the framework of the Council of Europe (CoE) and in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. These standards - called 'pan- European general principles of good administration' - cover the entire range of general organizational, procedural, and substantive legal institutions meant to ensure a democratically legitimized, open, and transparent administration respecting the rule of law. They are about the 'limiting function' of administrative law: its function to protect individuals from arbitrary power, to legitimize administrative action, and to combat corruption. This book analyses the sources and functions of the pan-European general principles of good administration and seeks to uncover how deeply they are rooted in the domestic legal systems of the CoE Member States. It comprises 28 country reports dedicated to an in-depth exploration of the impact of these standards on the national legal systems of the Member States written by respective experts on these systems. It argues that the pan-European general principles of good administration lead to a certain harmonization of the legal orders of the Member States with regard to the limiting function of administrative law despite the many fundamental differences between their administrative and legal systems. It comes to the further conclusion that the pan-European general principles of good administration can be considered as a concretization of the founding values of the CoE and describes the 'administrative law obligations' a Member State entered into when joining the CoE.

The Services Directive is one of the cornerstones for the realization of the EU internal market and is fundamental to economic and legal experts, as well as to the general public. This book analyses in detail the different steps taken by each of the 27 EU Member States in the implementation process of the Services Directive. It provides not only detailed information about the changes in national law adopted by the Member States, but also facilitates a comparison of the different implementation strategies. It gives an insight in the heterogeneity or homogeneity of implementation concepts and shows how European legislation affects legislation that were originally nationally dominated, such as the law of national administration. Valuable for academics interested in European and administrative law and the transposition of European lawmaking into domestic law, as well as for civil servants in ministries, chambers of commerce, local governments and other comparable institutions having to implement the Directive.

The Services Directive is one of the cornerstones for the realization of the EU internal market and is fundamental to economic and legal experts, as well as to the general public. This book analyses in detail the different steps taken by each of the 27 EU Member States in the implementation process of the Services Directive. It provides not only detailed information about the changes in national law adopted by the Member States, but also facilitates a comparison of the different implementation strategies. It gives an insight in the heterogeneity or homogeneity of implementation concepts and shows how European legislation affects legislation that were originally nationally dominated, such as the law of national administration. Valuable for academics interested in European and administrative law and the transposition of European lawmaking into domestic law, as well as for civil servants in ministries, chambers of commerce, local governments and other comparable institutions having to implement the Directive.