Anthology of Administrative Discretion

The article analyzes scientific works that had a significant influence on the genesis and evolution of the theory of administrative discretion: “The Spirit of Law” by Charles Montesquieu (1748), “Introduction to the Study of the Law of the Constitution” by Albert Dicey (1885) and “Public Administration and the Public Interest” by E. Pendleton Herring (1936). It is shown that initially administrative discretion was understood as reasonable (rational) activity of executive authorities and their officials, then administrative discretion began to be opposed to law as such, and recently it is increasingly interpreted as creative activity of the government in the framework of anticipatory discretionary regulation. Special attention is paid to the continuity and expansion of the above ideas, their development in the concepts of other researchers, including modern ones, as well as their criticism. The conclusion is made that these ideas should be taken into account in the formationof the Russian theory of administrative discretion.