Science of Administrative Law and Constitutional Law: a question of methods

Abstract

In France, the relationship between the methods used to develop the science of Constitutional Law, on the one hand, and the science of Administrative Law, on the other hand, are complex. We would like to determine how and why the specialists of each discipline deal with the methods used by the other. Furthermore, the generalist publicists, that is to say studying as well Administrative Law as Constitutional Law, did they analyze this two corpus with the same methodological tools? It soon appears that the methodological exchanges are significantly unbalanced. The methods assigned to administrative law specialists have more influence on the study of constitutional law than the reverse. This conclusion is, however, more complex regarding general publicists. Therefore, while among specialist scholars, respectively of Administrative Law and Constitutional Law, the methodology is becoming a determining factor for building the autonomy of its own discipline, for the generalist scholars, it is, on the contrary, previous epistemological postures that determine methodological choices.