Claims in administrative law cases are called a request (la requeˆte) or recours. English lawyers familiar with the Privy Council before 1642 will recognise the name from its judicial activity in the Court of Requests. There are a number of important differences from the application for judicial review in English law and their equivalents in Scots and Northern Irish laws. In the first place, a claim or request is not limited to an action seeking to annul an administrative decision. That is the

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... ecours pour exce's de pouvoir (the remedy for misuse of power), which is concerned with the legality of administrative action. But a request can also include claims for breach of contract or administrative liability, or for appeals against administrative decisions (such as on certain social benefits or certain taxes), and the remedy is granted more than merely annulment. This is the recours de pleine juridiction, which is dispersed in a variety of different ways in English law. 1 So the request is a one-stop place for all kinds of action brought against the administration. For ease of understanding, this book refers to a 'request' as a 'claim'. PRINCIPLES OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT PROCESS French administrative court procedure is governed by seven principles, some of which are of greater importance than others. Four are fundamental values (the right to effective redress, the principle of contradiction, the principle of openness and the principle of a decision within a reasonable time) and three are operational principles based on experience (principally the written, the collegial and the inquisitorial character of judicial proceedings). These last three are the 5