Administrative law and private powers

Administrative law was originally based on the relationship between public authority and private liberty, and was for a long time conceived essentially as the law aimed at controlling public authority in the name of private liberty. Another kind of relationship has steadily flanked the previous one: the relationship between public authority and private powers. Within the latter, public authority faces three main kinds of private powers: private associations; private business; and private regulators. The report deals with these three aspects, and tries to analyze their main characteristics, the difficulties for administrative agencies to cope with those private powers, and the remedies that can be put in act. Therefore, administrative law – while keeping on controlling public authority in the name of private liberty – has also become the law aimed to control private powers, and to reach a proper balance with them.