Elements of Private Law in Civil Service Contracts in the 18th to 21st Centuries

Abstract

The present paper examines the interface between private law and law of civil service from a historical and contemporary perspective. In doing so, it outlines a kind of developmental path of law of civil service and its trends, by examining the extent to which private law – and from the 20th century onwards, ’general’ labour law – influenced the field of law of civil service in a given period. During the absolutist period, roman law analogies were used – unsuccessfully – to define the legal relations of the civil service, leading to the emergence of the academic view that a new field of law was needed: law of civil service. The doctrinal development of this new legal concept took place in Europe in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, but even here private law solutions did not disappear completely. This was followed by the rise of the New Public Management and then of the neoweberian theory, which are still making their mark on law of civil service today. In this context, the paper provides examples of current public regulations that are ‚privatising’ or even going in the opposite direction.