I. REASONABLENESS IN ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
There are at least three areas in which the yardstick of reasonableness might play a role in
administrative law.
I. 1. Reasonableness as Legitimacy
On a deeper philosophical plane, reasonableness of the law or a particular statute in the area
of public administration is, as in other areas of law, a legitimising argument. A reasonable law
has fewer problems in securing its general acceptance and obedience; “Law is the perfection
of reason”.1
In the area of administrative law, practising legal philosophers tend to come in
limited supply; public administration generally does not have a strong reputation for
questioning law and administrative regulations or circulars in terms of their reasonableness.
Reflections on reasonableness as legitimacy thus remain floating in the space and are often
left to rather constitutional than administrative deliberations.