Rechtsrelativering: een verkenning op het terrein van het overheidshandelen

Abstract

The main question of this study is whether a disregard of the law by the governement is discernible. In this thesis 'disregard of the law' means any government action which ignores applicable legal norms without a serious justification. Four questions have been researched. In the first place a definition of ‘disregard of the law' has been given, also in order to enable the observation of this phenomenon. In the second place the question was posed whether disregard of the law actually takes place and whether it is incidental or might be considered a practice. The third question concerns the way in which disregarding the law occurs in the interaction between ministers and government lawyers. The role of the government lawyers in these processes is also investigated. The final question regards the matter of cause and effect. The focus is in particular on the impact of the disregard of the law on the profession of the government lawyer. This study aims at setting a research agenda. It introduces the phenomenon of disregard of the law in government and shows that this phenomenon occurs in practice, more often than occasionally