La concession de service public en droit administratif français
Institution:
Bordeaux 1Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
From all administrative contracts, the most important, and may be the most used, the one that is at the origin of may conflict and raises up great interest and ever passion, the contract that the doctrine and jurisprudence call a "concession of public service", is, without any boubt the most problematical, and sometimes the worst delimited. And nevertheless it would be important to define its most important caracteristics. It's the one that expresses the highest degree of collaboration between the administrating and a third party; it's the contracting parties that, on the occasion of inner litigation, made it often become a question of general orders. And still, the notion of concession isn't very clearely defined. The explaination of that enigma must be looked for in the attitude of the contracting parties and especially in the one of the conceding authority, in the fact that the administrative practice of concession made of it a contract that is different from the one which was described in the theoretical classical model ? if that's the right explanation (and why not), it explains an important , and may be a regrettable effect of the evolution of the notion, that evolution, mainly concerning the functions and the domain of use of the concession,is,however, far from having given only negative effects. The concession of public service, that means for the contracting parties rights and obligations, and gives rise to an important contentious matter, is often shows as a notion in crisis. If it seems hard to deny it, it will be necessary to give some explanations about the origins and the manifestations of that crisis, and also about the worth of the solutions proposed to solve it. Finally, it's possible to maintain that the concession problems could be solved by a come back to the first truths of that contract, that's to say, the gestion of the public service belongs to the concessionay, at his own risks, under the control of the conceding authority.
Abstract FR:
De tous les contrats administratifs, le plus important et peut-etre le plus usite, celui qui provoque le plus de conflits et suscite le plus d'interet voire de passion, le contrat que la doctrine et la jurisprudence qualifient de concession de service public est sans conteste le plus problematique et, a certains egards, le plus mal delimite. Et pourtant, il importerait que ses caracteres essentiels fussent definis. C'est lui qui exprime le plus haut degre de collaboration entre l'administration et des tiers; ce sont ses contractants qui, a l'occasion de litiges les opposant, ont fait en sorte qu'il soit devenu une question souvent a l'ordre du jour. Et pourtant la notion de concession demeure flottante. L'explication de cette enigme doit-elle etre cherchee dans le comportement des contractants et specialement dans celui de l'autorite concedante, dans ce fait que la pratique administrative de la concession a ete conduite a en faire un contrat sensiblement different de celui que l'on decrivait dans le modele theorique et classique? si l'explication est exacte - et pourquoi non- elle traduit un important et peut-etre aussi un regrettable effet de l'evolution de la notion. Cette evolution portant essentiellement sur les fonctions et le domaine d'utilisation de la concession est loin cependant de n'avoir donne que des effets negatifs. La concession de service public, qui se traduit pour les parties contrac- tantes par des droits et des obligations et donne lieu a un important conten- tieux juridique, est souvent presentee comme une notion en crise. S'il parait difficile d'en disconvenir, force sera de s'expliquer sur les origines et les manifestations de cette crise, ainsi que sur le merite des solutions proposees pour la resoudre, mais il est possible de soutenir qu'en definitive les problemes de la concession pourraient etre resolus par un retour aux verites premieres de ce contrat, a savoir que c'est au concession- naire qu'appartient la gestion du service public, a ses risques et perils, sous le controle de l'autorite concedante.