PAM assgn 1

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the meaning, nature and scope of administrative laws and administrative ethics. The paper begins with definitions of the key terms such as administrative laws and administrative ethics. Thereafter, the paper discusses the meaning nature and scope of the two terms in question. The paper ends with a conclusion.
Craig (2008) asserts that Administrative law is the legal framework within which public administration is carried out. Thus, Administrative laws concerning the administrative powers in different areas of governance exercisable by the Administration (i.e. the executive authorities). They are laws setting limits on administrative powers exercising by the Administration. They are laws laying down the general principles concerning the manner on how the Administration should perform its administrative powers to achieve good governance (Wade and Forsyth, 2009). They are laws as a kind of policy tools to be used by the Administration for effective governance. They are laws ensuring the accountability of the Administration and meaningful participation in the governance process by interested parties and the civil society (Wade and Forsyth, ibid).
Ethics refers to well-based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of duties, principles, specific virtues, or benefits to society (Kohlberg, 1981). Thus, administrative ethics are well-based standards of right and wrong that prescribes what public officials ought to do as part of their duties in public administration.
There are several branches of the science of law. The Administrative Law is a recent branch of the science of law. In the political science there are few Administrative organs. Certain functions have been allotted to these organs in the Administrative Machinery. The Administrative law deals with the structure, functions and powers of the Administrative organs (Craig, 2008). It also lays down the methods and procedures which are to be followed by them during the course of remedies which are available to the persons whose rights and other privileges are damaged by their operations. Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of the government which comprise of rule-making or legislation (when delegated to them by the Legislature as and when the need be), adjudication (to pronounce decisions while giving judgements on certain matters), implementation/enforcement of public policy (Harlow and Rawlings, 1994).
The nature of administrative laws can be seen in the matters to decide. Under Administrative Process the nature of administrative laws is polycentric (a complex network of relationships with interacting points of influence). Thus, administrative laws entail different departments of the government interacting at some point for the common good of good governance (Wade and Forsyth, 2009).
The scope of administrative law is that it determines the organization, powers and duties of administrative authorities. The emphasis of Administrative Law is on procedures for formal adjudication based on the principles of Natural Justice and for rule making (Craig, 2008).
The concept of Administrative Law is founded on the following principles: a) Power is conferred on the administration by law, b) No power is absolute or uncontrolled howsoever broad the nature of the same might be and c) There should be reasonable restrictions on exercise of such powers depending on the situation (Craig, 1990).
Administrative law is based on the concept of rule of law that supports Natural Justice (to adjudicate based on impartiality, unjustness and the prescribed laws and legal methods instead of arbitrariness and abuse of official power on the part of government (Craig, 2008). while serving the people and deciding cases brought before its Tribunals, etc. Natural justice is basically applied in cases where there are no laws prescribed, here the individual has to be given an opportunity to be heard and the judgement is to be taken into consideration the particular facts and cases of the case and the judgement should be free from bias) (Craig, 1990). It is to prevent violation of people's rights by officials in power.
Furthermore, administrative law specifies the rights and liabilities of private individuals in their dealings with public officials and also specifies the procedures by which those rights and liabilities can be enforced by those private individuals. It provides accountability and responsibility in the administrative functioning (Craig, 2008). Also there are specified laws and rules and regulations that guide and direct the internal administration relations like hierarchy, division of labour and so on.
One of the principal objects of administrative law is to ensure efficient, economical, and just administration (Craig, 1990). A system of administrative law that impedes or frustrates administration would clearly be bad, and so, too, would be a system that results in injustice to the individual. But to judge whether administrative law helps or hinders effective administration or works in such a way as to deny justice to the individual involves an examination of the ends that public administration is supposed to serve, as well as the means that it employs (Craig, 2008).
Ethics refers to well-based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of duties, principles, specific virtues, or benefits to society(Craig, 1990). This definition identifies four dimensions of ethics, one based on the nature of public service and three based on the philosophical perspectives to ethics: Duties: The behaviours expected of persons who occupy certain roles; that is, the obligations taken on when assuming a role or profession; Virtues: Qualities that define what a good person is; moral excellence; Principles: Fundamental truths that form the basis for behaviour; "kinds of action that are right or obligatory and Benefits to society: Actions that produce the greatest good for the greatest number (Harlow and Rawlings, 1994)
For persons who work in government and non-profit organizations, duty has a special importance. They must serve the public, fulfil the expectations of public office, and be trustees of public resources. These are the actions required by their occupation or role independent of, but reinforced by, other ethical considerations.
The ethics of public administrators begins with and is grounded in duty. Duty is an old-fashioned term that at first glance may seem too narrow to be more than the starting point for developing administrative ethics. In a narrow view, duty implies the restricted range of actions one is required to take without question, as in the phrase "It is my duty to..."
Ethics implies a broader range of expected behaviours and reflection about what should be done, and definitions of duty can encompass such views. Duty means the "action required by one's business occupation, or function" but also "the action or behaviour due by moral or legal obligation (Harlow and Rawlings (1994)." Thus, duty implies obligations, responsibilities, and meeting expectations that are imposed on the individual from outside sources.
The definition of social ethics embraces a set of norms, assessments and opinions, which are characteristic of a group of people. This very simple definition of ethics points to society, citizens, groups of people as creators of norms and standards of behaviour. Ethics are standards of conduct. These standards can be applied to personal behaviour. Ethics distinguish between the right and wrong ways directing behaviour in our personal and professional life. Following this way of thinking we may establish a definition of "administrative ethics" using the words: norms, legal regulations, assessments of public administration officials, public service (Craig, 1990).
Public service ethics are a prerequisite to, and underpinning of public trust, and are a keystone of good governance. Public service is a public trust. Citizens expect public servants to serve the public interest with fairness and to manage public resources properly on a daily basis. Fair and reliable public services inspire public trust and create a favourable environment for businesses, thus contributing to well–functioning markets and economic growth. This is the tradition of external control that was promoted by Finer (1941), who argued that elected officials should exercise minute control over administrators (Harlow and Rawlings, 1994). In this view, the most important duty is to obey authoritative orders.
Nature of administrative ethics can be seen in their aims. Ethics aims at systematic knowledge. So, ethics is a science. Every science is concerned with a particular sphere of nature. As a science ethics has its own particular sphere; it deals with certain judgments that we make about human conduct. It deals with systematic explanation of rightness or wrongness in the light of the highest Good of man.
Ethics is a normative science. It is concerned with what ought to be done rather than what is the case. It differs from positive science. A positive science, natural science or descriptive science is concerned with what is. It deals with facts and explains them by their causes. In positive science there is no question of judging its objects in any way. But ethics does not deal with fact. Rather it deals with value (Harlow and Rawlings, 1994). Therefore, it is clear that ethics is concerned with judgments of value, while positive science deals with judgments of facts. That is why ethics is not a positive science but a normative science. Normative ethics deals with standards or norms by which we can judge human actions to be right or wrong. For example, logic, aesthetics are also considered as normative sciences, because logic and aesthetics are concerned with truth and beauty. So, truth, beauty and value are the three ideals of logic, aesthetics and ethics respectively.
Ethics is not a practical science. Practical science deals with means for the realization of an end or ideal. It teaches us to know how to do. As for instance, medical science is a practical science. It concerns with the means in order to remove the causes of ailments or diseases. But ethics is not concerned with means in order to achieve moral ideal that is rightness or goodness. It does not teach us how to live a moral life. So, ethics cannot be regarded as a practical science (Kohlberg, 1981).
Ethics is not an art. Ethics does not teach us an art as to how to lead a moral life. Rather it helps us to justify rightness or goodness which can lead to the supreme goal of human life that is to realize the summum bonum of human life (Montgomery, 1998). So, ethics is not a means to the highest ideal of human life. But, like the practical science, art is also a means for obtaining a goal. So, ethics is neither a practical science nor an art. Again the question is, is there any art of conduct? The reply is, in case of morality this is not true. Art especially deals with acquisition of skill to produce objects, while morality deals with motive, intention, purpose and choice which are considered right or wrong in the light of goodness (Craig, 1990). Therefore, morality consists of goodness, which is really an intrinsic end.
A norm or ideal in the ethical sense is defined as any regulatory principle that controls or lays guidelines to thought and mode of acting. Ethics is a science of values as it discovers the forms of conduct or behaviour, which have the character of oughtness (Kohlberg, 1981). Ethics deals with moral phenomena and it observes and classifies them and explains them by the moral ideal. It distinguishes moral judgments from logical judgments and aesthetic judgments and reduced them to a system (Montgomery, 1998). So, we may define the nature of ethics as scientific. However, from another perspective all sciences also lead to philosophical questions if we take philosophy to be quest for knowledge. That is way ethics is a branch of philosophy.
There is no clear-cut boundary between science and philosophy, between descriptive science and normative science and between ethics and philosophy. A norm is more than a description. While philosophies have become more scientific and sciences have become more philosophical, the distinction between science and philosophy and between value-science like ethics and general philosophy is a matter of degree. That way ethics is both scientific and philosophical, both descriptive and normative science and both pure and applied, pure ethics and meta ethics (Montgomery, 1998). Ethics is an art as it sets guidelines for practical conduct and also for understanding the meaning of what it is to act in an ethical manner. Ethics is concerned with Goodness as an ultimate value while some other normative sciences like Aesthetics and Logic are oriented to the ideals of Beauty and Truth respectively.
Richard (1994) asserts that the scope of ethics indicates its subject matter. Ethics as normative science deals with moral ideal or the good in order to enquire the nature of our conduct. It enquires into the nature of the springs of actions, motives, intentions, voluntary actions and so on. It determines rightness or wrongness of human actions (Kohlberg, 1981). It does not enquire into the origin and growth of human conduct. As a science of morality ethics discusses the contents of moral consciousness and the various problems of moral consciousness (Richard, 1994).
Administrative ethics is concerned with the highest good or absolute good of public officials. It investigates the nature of its fundamental notions i.e. right, duty and good. Moral judgments passed on our voluntary actions are also included within the scope of ethics (Kohlberg, 1981). In discussing the moral judgment it has also to concern with the nature, object, faculty and standard of moral judgment. Moral sentiments and feelings are arising in our mind when we contemplate about the moral judgment and therefore, ethics has to discuss the nature of moral sentiments to moral judgment.
The scope of administrative ethics includes whatever has reference to free human acts, whether as principle or cause of action (law, conscience, virtue), or as effect or circumstance of action (merit, punishment, etc.) Ethics discusses the nature of human freedom. Ethics investigates what constitutes good or bad, just or unjust. It also inquires into-what is virtue, law, conscience and duty? What obligations are common to all? What is the good in all good acts? These questions lie within the scope of ethics. The sense of duty, oughtness or moral obligation and the responsibility for actions are also included within the range of ethics (Richard, 1994).
In conclusion, the paper has discussed the meaning, nature and scope of administrative laws and administrative ethics. Thus, administrative law can be said to be science of power of Administrative authorities, and the nature of their powers can be studied under the three heads of Legislative or Rule making, Purely Executive and Judicial or Adjudicative. Administrative ethics, on the other hand, are shaped by administrative laws and entails public servants/officials to uphold moral standards in performing their duties. Therefore, it is a plausible assumption that most public servants have, at a minimum, a grasp of the basic components of administrative ethics. It is likely that they consider the ethical choices they must make and that they are guided by a sense of duty to serve as well as basic virtues and principles. These standards reflect a reliance on ethical judgment that stresses maintaining law and norms that promote order in society



REFERENCES
Carol Harlow and Richard Rawlings (1994). Law and Administration: London, Edinburgh, Dublin: Butterworths, 2nd edn., 1997), Chapter 1-4
Craig (1990). Public Law and Democracy in the United Kingdom and in the United States of America (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990), pp. 1-9
Craig (2008). Administrative Law (Sweet & Maxwell, 6th edn, 2008), Chapter 1
Guerrette, Richard (1994). Management by ethics – A new paradigm and model for corporate ethics, in: Ethics and Economic Affairs, ed. by Alan Lewis and Karl-Erik Wärneryd, London: Routledge, 1994, pp. 51-114.
Kohlberg, Lawrence (1981). The Psychology of Moral Development: Moral Stages and the Idea of Justice, vol. 1, New York: Harper and Collins, 1981.
Van Wart, Montgomery (1998). Changing Public Sector Values; New York: Garland Publishing Inc., pp. 3-23.
Wade and Forsyth (2009). Administrative Law Oxford: Oxford University Press, 10th edn., 2009), pp. 30-35





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