FranceThe Vicissitudes of a Tradition
This chapter considers the history of French administrative law. Three main periods may be discerned. The first of these ran from the Restauration, immediately after the first Napoleonic Empire, until the end of the Second Empire in 1870. This period of political instability is characterized by the great diversity of the first expressions of interest in foreign administrative law: educational prospects, journal articles, as well as political and nationalistic controversies. Knowledge of these laws increased considerably with the creation of the Société de Législation comparée. During the Third Republic, many of the comparisons carried out repeatedly sparked debates with political and nationalistic overtones. After the Second World War, the teaching of comparative administrative law made significant headway. The development of research and the increase in publications stimulated reflections on the methods and the ‘scientific field’ of comparative administrative law.