ABSTRACT

This chapter allows for a recognition of the creative normative function of the processing of administrative decision-making. Modern administrative law cannot, of course, deny a creative element that is termed 'discretion', although this leeway for administrative autonomy is hidden within the idea of a legislative delegation of power. 'Delegation' includes the assumption that the domain of options within which the 'delegated' power of administrative decision-makers can develop is defined by the legislator. In international private law, the question of whether Lex Mercatoria is law is controversial. The 'acte administratif' has both an external function (in the limitation of subjective rights) and an internal function that allows administration to process rational decision-making on a case-by-case mode from which a structure emerges that can be deciphered both by the administrative practitioners themselves and by private actors.