Lin Teng-yao's Perspective: The Problem Lies in Administration, Not Legislation—Advancing Clinical Administrative Law to Safeguard Livelihoods

"The July 25 Anti-Toxic Oil Protest" took place, with countless citizens taking to the streets, demanding that the government restore a clean and safe dining table for all. This march reflects not just a single food safety incident, but also the public's deep anxiety about the government's governance capacity and administrative credibility.

In response to this food safety crisis, political parties have once again proposed various amendments to the Food Safety and Hygiene Management Act. However, former FDA Commissioner Kang Chao-chou accurately pinpointed the core issue: "The food safety legal system is sufficient; what's lacking is enforcement." This statement is not only a diagnosis of food safety policy but also highlights the most critical issue in administrative law.

In recent years, major livelihood issues—such as food safety, energy supply, environmental pollution, public infrastructure, epidemic prevention, fraud, traffic safety, long-term care, healthcare, and labor protection—have occurred one after another. What the public feels is no longer just isolated policy failures, but a systemic breakdown in administrative governance.

Many people tend to blame politicians or attribute problems to inefficient administration. However, from the perspective of administrative law, deeper questions must be asked: Is the administrative organization sound? Are administrative procedures legal? Is administrative discretion reasonable? Is enforcement effectively implemented? Are people's rights truly protected? These are precisely the core research topics of administrative law.

Taking this food safety incident as an example, Taiwan's Food Safety and Hygiene Management Act has undergone multiple revisions, establishing a three-tier quality control system: first-tier self-management by businesses, second-tier third-party verification, and third-tier government inspections. Combined with management mechanisms like GHP and HACCP, the legal framework is comprehensive. Yet, the major food safety incident at Chung Lian Oils reveals that the real problem is not the absence of laws, but insufficient risk assessment, low inspection frequency, poor coordination between central and local authorities, and inadequate enforcement.

Therefore, what truly needs reform is not the legal clauses, but the administration itself.

However, current administrative law education in universities still emphasizes legal texts, case law, and theoretical analysis, with insufficient attention to the pathological phenomena arising from the actual operation of administrative systems. While legal texts are important, the purpose of administrative law is not merely to interpret laws, but to solve the administrative problems people face every day.

In medicine, there is 'clinical medicine,' where doctors do not merely study human anatomy but diagnose diseases, analyze causes, and propose treatments through real cases to restore health. Administrative law should be the same: it should not remain in abstract legal theory, but return to people's lives, diagnosing institutional flaws, analyzing legal causes, and proposing reform solutions through real administrative cases. This is precisely why the author advocates for 'Clinical Administrative Law.'

Clinical Administrative Law is a new discipline of administrative law that uses real administrative cases as research material, applies fundamental principles of administrative law as analytical tools, and aims to improve administrative systems, protect people's rights, and enhance governance effectiveness.

This food safety incident is the perfect case study. From the disclosure of contaminated oil distribution, division of authority between central and local governments, information transparency, product recalls, administrative penalties, consumer redress, to cross-ministerial crisis management—each stage involves key administrative law systems. If discussions remain at the level of political confrontation without institutional review, similar incidents will continue to recur.

Likewise, vaccine procurement, quarantine orders, isolation measures, information disclosure, and property compensation during pandemics; energy policy and power shortages; environmental impact assessments, urban renewal, land expropriation; traffic safety, digital governance, and AI regulation—all are vital research materials for Clinical Administrative Law.

Administrative law is not cold legal text; it is a law people interact with daily. From registering a birth, enrolling in school under educational administration, working under labor protections, receiving healthcare under insurance systems, starting a business under commercial regulations, buying a home under land administration, retiring under pension systems, to funeral arrangements after death—administrative law accompanies people throughout life.

Thus, it can be said: administration governs life and death—and governs from birth to death!

This is not an exaggeration, but the truest portrayal of administrative law. Administrative power covers nearly every aspect of people's lives, and its governance quality directly determines people's quality of life and national competitiveness.

Yet, the more powerful administrative authority becomes, the more it must be constrained by law. The greatest mission of administrative law is not to grant more power to the president or the Executive Yuan, but to demand that executive power governs constitutionally, acts according to law, follows due process, applies proportionality, acts fairly and reasonably, and remains accountable to legislative, judicial, and public oversight. Administrative law truly protects not the government, but the people!

Therefore, future administrative law research should move beyond abstract theory and establish a comprehensive Clinical Administrative Law system—including Clinical Administrative Organization Law, Clinical Administrative Procedure Law, Clinical Administrative Action Law, Clinical Administrative Enforcement Law, Clinical Administrative Penalty Law, Clinical Administrative Relief Law, Clinical Crisis Governance Law, and Clinical Local Autonomy Law—so that administrative law truly leaves the classroom, enters society, and engages directly with people's lives.

The author recently proposed 'Clinical Constitutional Law,' aiming to diagnose the health of national constitutionalism through real cases. Now, he further calls for the construction of 'Clinical Administrative Law'—to examine administrative systems through real cases, improve public governance through legal methods, and safeguard people's rights through institutional reform.

What people need is not more laws, nor more administrative agencies. What people truly need is for laws to be implemented, systems enforced, and administration to genuinely protect the people!

When administrative law becomes clinical, administration can truly be realized. When administration genuinely responds to the people, democratic rule of law can truly be achieved, and people's rights to dignified, healthy, and fulfilling lives can be truly safeguarded!

*The author is a retired professor from the Department of Law at Tunghai University