Problem setting. Administrative law as a fundamental branch of public law is a necessary tool in regulating the activities of public administration bodies, public organizations, enterprises, institutions, and organizations. Its influence is constantly felt by specific individuals. Norms of administrative law protect relations formed under the influence of civil, labor, financial and other branches of law. In recent years, administrative law has been in a state of transformation, a new ideology of relations between the state and the citizen is being formed, the administrative legal doctrine is undergoing fundamental changes, and administrative legislation is being updated. As a result, administrative law has turned from the law of state management into a branch that normatively defines and regulates the rights and obligations of public administration in relation to subjects of civil society. Analysis of recent researches and publications. A significant number of scientists dealt with issues of administrative law, its subject, principles, among which it is worth mentioning the works of such scientists as: V. B. Averyanov, Yu. P. Bityak, V. V. Galunko, R. S. Melnyk, A. A. Pukhtetska and others. However, despite the rather large number of works, questions related to the generalization of scientific positions, which highlight the subject of administrative law as a basic category for determining industry precepts, remain in most cases outside the attention of researchers, which makes it possible to talk about the need to carry out such research. The purpose of research is to clarify the role of the subject of administrative law as a basic category for determining the branch principles of administrative law. Article’s main body. The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the subject of administrative law as a fundamental criterion for determining the principles of administrative law. Of fundamental importance for updating the concept of the subject of administrative law were two theoretical conclusions that were made in the development of the ideas of the Concept of Administrative Reform in Ukraine. The transformation of the subject of administrative law is a factor in updating the content and classification of the principles of administrative law. The subject of administrative law is social relations that arise for the purpose of realizing and protecting the rights of citizens, creation of normal conditions for the functioning of civil society and the state. It follows that the main task of administrative law is to create a priority of legal conditions for ensuring by public administration the rights, freedoms and interests of man and citizen in the sphere of public administration. The subject of administrative law is a wide complex of social relations that arise in connection with the implementation of the functions of the state executive power, the content of which is the management of society. Ukraine’s new management model (with adapted principles of Good Governance) should be aimed at maximizing the scope of public participation in governance, ensuring that economic, social and political priorities are based on consensus in such a way that the voices of all citizens, even the poorest and most socially disadvantaged population groups were taken into account when making state decisions. The article emphasizes the fact that principles are the leading category in the administrative law of all continental European countries. The principles reveal the content of law, reveal the essence of law, its foundations, as well as the regularities of social life and needs, and highlight trends. In the theory of law, the principles of law mean the most general and stable requirements that contribute to the establishment and protection of social values, determine the nature of law and the direction of its further development. Conclusions and prospects for development. The principles of law are a natural phenomenon of legal science, which in their essence are universal and reflect modern approaches to their interpretation. In modern conditions, the principles of law have a universal character, as they must be taken into account by law-making subjects during the creation of norms for the legal regulation of social relations. The peculiarities of the subject of administrative law provide grounds for a new approach to updating and characterizing the principles of administrative law resulting from interdependence and influence on each other.