Abstract
The increasing reliance of public administrations on algorithmic tools for decision-making calls for a new legal category: the algorithmic administrative act. This article argues that existing terminology—‘electronic,’ ‘digital,’ and ‘automated’—fails to capture the legal specificity of algorithmic intervention in administrative adjudication, especially in France. After establishing the case for the term ‘algorithmic administrative act,’ the article proposes a working definition: a legal decision, whether individual or regulatory, unilaterally adopted under the exercise of public authority to yield external legal effects, substantively influenced by an algorithm. This definition is built around three groups of attributes—objective, subjective, and procedural—and situates the concept within the classical theory of administrative acts, while identifying the distinct legal challenges that algorithmization poses for legality, transparency, and accountability.
