THE CITIZEN AND THE ADMINISTRATION IN FRANCE — THE CONSEIL DETAT VERSUS OMBUDSMAN DEBATE REVISITED |
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| Authors: | DAVID CLARK |
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| Institution: | Dr Clark is Senior Lecturer in Politics, Department of Educational and Social Studies, Southampton College of Higher Education. |
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| Abstract: | The purpose of this article is to reappraise, in the light of recent French experience with the 'Ombudsman', the prevailing orthodoxy, shared by élite opinion in both France and Britain in the 1960s' that the Ombudsman and a system of administrative courts applying 'droit administratif' (a body of autonomous rules separate from private law), were mutually exclusive modes of securing redress for citizens aggrieved by administrative action. The thesis is advanced that in the contemporary welfare state, irrespective of particular political, administrative and legal traditions, a system of administrative law and an Ombudsman are complementary not competitive institutions. |
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