The law of state liability is shaped to an extent by case law that is rarely seen in other areas of law today. Among its creations is the institute of "liability from administrative legal relationships," which has not received the attention it deserves in legal scholarship. The largely result-oriented jurisprudence aims to address actual or perceived gaps in public law secondary legal protection by applying provisions of the Civil Code (BGB) accordingly when accepting "legal relationships" in administrative law. The crucial preliminary question of when a so-called "administrative legal relationship" exists has so far remained unanswered. Thomas Meysen analyzes the application of private law liability provisions in entirely disparate areas of public law.