“My assertion today is that economic administrative law is often approached as a collection of separate sectoral regulations, and that a systematic study as an integrated legal field is insufficiently present,” stated Pim Jansen, Professor of Economic Administrative Law at Erasmus School of Law, during his inaugural lecture on 21 February 2025. In his lecture, titled The Price of Responsiveness in Economic Administrative Law, Jansen highlighted the need for a more systematic study of this legal field and better integration into general administrative law.
Economic administrative law lies at the intersection of government and the market. This area of law covers various sectors, from competition and financial supervision to energy, telecommunications, and food safety. “The government acts in various capacities: as a regulator, market participant, and as a buyer/seller,” said Jansen.
A field in transition
Jansen pointed out the increasing complexity and interconnection within economic administrative law. “The key themes emerging from the trend analysis – growing interdependence, digitalisation, global power blocs, horizontal forms of supervision, broadening objectives, and the use of multidisciplinary knowledge – show that economic administrative law is undergoing a profound transformation,” he stated. According to Jansen, this transformation requires a systematic approach to maintain legal safeguards and public values.
Additionally, Jansen highlighted the shift towards more horizontal forms of oversight and enforcement. “The government is increasingly no longer operating solely as a vertical, hierarchical enforcer, but is involving private or semi-public actors to provide additional knowledge or capacity.” This development raises questions about legal protection and the role of general administrative law.
The price of responsiveness
A key theme in Jansen’s speech was the tension between flexibility and legal safeguards within administrative law. He illustrated this with the recent bill Strengthening the Safeguard Function of the General Administrative Law Act (Awb). “Although this reform is understandable and necessary in, for example, social administrative law, its application to economic administrative law raises questions. How does increased responsiveness relate to the need for legal certainty and predictability in economic regulation?” Jansen wondered.
He pointed out potential consequences for competition law. “For example, it is rather hard to imagine that a merger or acquisition is prohibited, but that such a ban would be disproportionate or unbalanced,” Jansen argued. According to him, this illustrates the complexity of applying general legal principles to specific subfields within economic administrative law.
A call for systematic study
Jansen emphasised the importance of a more coherent approach: “A systematic approach is necessary to guide this transformation in a responsible manner, to ensure legal accountability, and to safeguard that public values do not get overlooked in a rapidly changing environment,” he argued. He described economic administrative law as a “testing ground for broader developments in administrative law, such as the impact of European regulation, the role of supervision, and the changing relationship between public and private law.”
By studying economic administrative law as an integrated field, legal and societal challenges can be more effectively addressed, according to Jansen. “This area of law has a huge influence on the functioning of markets, the protection of consumers, and the safeguarding of public interests. It therefore deserves a balanced and thoughtful development that respects both the dynamics of markets and the legal principles of administrative law,” he stressed.
With these insights, Jansen hopes to encourage the further development of economic administrative law as an integrated legal field. “In the coming years, I will focus on further unlocking the administrative law dimension of the interaction between law and markets,” he concluded.
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