The Regulatory State: Subject Matter

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents the principal areas where legislation was enacted that accorded regulatory power to administrative authorities in the mid-16th to 19th centuries. This chapter provides a ‘vertical’ perspective through consideration of the subject matter areas where regulatory legislation was enacted. This material is central for understanding the emergence of administrative law in the period covered by this study, from the mid-16th century onwards. It was legal challenge to the administrative application of this regulatory legislation that led to the development of administrative law. The commonly accepted view is that administrative law only really developed in the 20th century because there was little by way of state regulation hitherto. The commonly accepted view is incorrect. The legislation enacted from the mid-16th to the end of the 19th centuries was an admixture of the general and the specific; the rationale for the enactment perforce varied; and so too did its efficacy.