Public Administration

This contribution takes stock of the main transformations taking place in administrative functions, between theory and practice. It identifies a line of development from the “absence” of relationship to the “essence” of relationship, in which the administrative function in practice conforms to and is characterized by, a relationship to theory.

The paper considers the responses that Italian public administrations are capable of giving to emergency events. After dealing with the possibility of identifying a legal notion of “emergency”, the analysis continues through the critical consideration of the various administrative organizations responding to emergencies and their structural overlap. This is followed by a recognition of the multiple administrative acts issued by the organisations and the exceptions they may contain in relation to the rules and principles of the legal system. The brief final considerations propose some hypotheses for change and improvement.

The paper deals with the mobile boundaries between private autonomy, law, administration and jurisdiction and briefly examines the phenomena of administration by law, simplification and replacement of administration by the administrative judge. Using a lay approach, the paper seeks to find the conceptual coordinates that, without treating the separation of powers as an intangible dogma, can be used to quantify and evaluate the extent to which other authorities have encroached upon the ‘naturally’ assigned domain of public administration.