1. As an author said,’ service public, puissance publique: ce sont là, sans doute, les deux notions qui ont fait couler le plus d’encre depuis un siècle dans la théorie administrativiste française et qui y ont alimenté les controverses les plus vives’, P. Amselek, ‘Le service public et la puissance publique. Réflexions autour d’une étude récente’, AJDA (1969) p. 492.
2. On the European side, in November 2007, in the framework of the modernisation of the single market, the Commission has published a series of documents which is meant to summarise and clarify its position on SGEI. It includes a communication on services of general interest including social services of general interest, a working document on the application of Article 86(2) of the EC Treaty to state aid in the form of public service compensation, a working document on the application of public procurement rules to social services of general interest and a working document on progress made since the 2004 White Paper on services of general interest. Communication on services of general interest including social services of general interest (COM(2007) 725 final); Working document on the application of Article 86(2) of the EC Treaty to state aid in the form of public service compensation (SEC(2007) 1516 final); Working document on the application of public procurement rules to social services of general interest (SEC(2007) 1514); Working document on progress made since the 2004 White Paper on services of general interest (SEC(2007) 1514). In the Communication, the Commission turns to define the services of general interest (SGI) and its own responsibility in that field with a special focus on social services. In the working documents, here again with a particular attention to social services, the Commission recalls in detail what is the legislation and the case law associated to SGIs.
3. See for instance, E. Brillet, ‘Le service public à la “française”: un mythe national au prisme de l’Europe’, 24 l’Economie politique (October 2004).
4. G. Bigot, ‘Les faillites conceptuelles de la notion de service public en droit administratif’, 1 RFDA (January–February 2008) p. 6.
5. The supporters of the public service notion as the major criterion in administrative law gathered in the group named ‘Ecole du service public’, see L. Duguit, Traité de droit constitutionnel [Treaty of Constitutional Law] (Paris, de Boccard 1911); L. Duguit, Les transformations du droit public (Paris, A. Colin 1913); G. Jèze, Les principes généraux du droit administrative (Paris, Berger-Levrault 1904); A. de Laubadère, Traité élémentaire de droit administratif, 2nd édn. (Paris, LGDJ 1957). However, a second trend promoted the criterion of state authority powers [‘puissance publique’]: M. Hauriou, Précis de droit administratif et de droit public, 11th edn. (Paris, Sirey 1927); C. Eisenmann, Cours de droit administratif, year 1951–1952 (Paris, LGDJ 1982).