The duty to give reasons is generally thought of as an indispensable procedural guarantee that is offered to citizens in all modern European administrative law systems. The comparative analysis carried out in this article, however, reveals that important differences continue to exist between the way in which various legal systems within Europe conceive of that duty. The article furthermore argues that the duty to give reasons has an important role to play in the furtherance of transparency and accountability as principles of good governance. However, it also has its limitations as an instrument for keeping the administration accountable. Up until today, the duty to give reasons primarily has a role to play in the relationship between the administration and those individuals that are subject to its specic (mostly individual) decisions. In that context, the question arises whether the status of the duty to give reasons is evolving towards that of an individual human right