The paper aims to identify the main characteristics of the principle of legality during the modernity, focusing especially on the developments of continental Europe during the 19th century. The author individualizes three main steps: legality-power, legality-guarantee and legality-system. The first one happens during the French Revolution. The second one spans over the period from right after that until mid-nineteenth century. The third period starts on mid-nineteenth century and goes until the beginning of the 20th century. It should be stressed that the different steps overlap themselves and leave traces on the definition of administrative law. Finally, the author describes the 20th century, marked by the constitutionalization of the administration and the review of the law itself, and the contemporary legality, marked by stronger demands that go beyond the simple conformity to the statutory law to reach the very justification of the administrative acts.
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