Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1939, Page 297
STATE AND INDIVIDUAL
287
other countries base their judgment in civil cases on other legal
tules than those contained in formal laws. Thus there is nothing
t0 prevent a court from awarding damages, determining con-
tractual obligations, and from deciding property litigations, fa-
roily disputes, inheritance cases, and disputes arising out of ad-
yninistrative acts, in accordance with rules of lay which are not
mcorporated in any enactment, but which have force as custom-
ary law or which may be deduced from general principles of law.
There is, on the other hand, no doubt that any interference by
the executive with the rights of private citizens can only be made
under the authority of a formal law or other positive rule of law.
In our country the executive organs have no general authority to
take action to promote the interests of the state irrespective of
existing laws. If an executive organ has issued a prohibition or
an order in an individual case for which there is no sanction in
any rule of law, the prohibition or order in question is then not
binding on the individual affected by the measure and must be
regarded as void. The individual which has infringed the re-
gulation cannot be punished on that account. If it is a question of
an administrative act whose object is not to order or prohibit but,
°n the contrary, to grant benefits in one form or another, then
the administrative act is also invalid, provided that it has been
tssued without statutory authority. In other words, the executive
0rgans have no general authority to grant permissions and ex-
ernptions to the citizens irrespective of statutory provisions. It is
ttue that such exemptions and permissions, for which there is no
^egal sanction, are not as a rule regarded as null and void. How-
ever, the beneficiary of such permission and exemption granted
tvithout statutory authority must be prepared to see the permission
0r exemption set aside by a decision of the courts. Thus as a result
°f the operation of the principle of legality every administrative
act conferring benefits for which there is no legal authority, can
be called in question.
True enough, the principle that the executive organs cannot
take action directed against individuals — above all cannot
issue any order or prohibition against them — without statutory
authority, has been somewhat undermined during the last few
decades. Modern legislation in the domain of administrative law
°tten invests the executive organs with such wide powers over
Ptivate citizens that there is a real danger of arbitrary action on
the part of the executive. Legislation is continually extending
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