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ADMIN.LAW
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1993-12-26
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ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
Administrative law is the branch of law that governs and limits
the exercise of decision-making authority by governmental
agencies and officials. It consists of policies and procedures
designed to prevent bureaucratic arbitrariness, to ensure that
administrative officials adhere to legislative mandates, to
guarantee a fair hearing to individuals when significant
interests may be affected by governmental action, and to
subject administrative authority to judicial control.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCIES
Administrative law is a response to the growth of the
governmental administrative process in the United States. As
the nation expanded, and as it became increasingly
industrialized and urbanized, it faced economic and social
problems that required responses more technologically expert,
more institutionally flexible, and more procedurally
expeditious than either Congress or the courts could provide.
Administrative agencies -- now numbering in the scores in the
federal government and in the thousands in the state
governments -- were created to remedy institutional
deficiencies in formulating and administering public policy. As
a result, the administrative process has become a fourth branch
of government, comparable in the scope of its authority to the
three traditional branches -- the executive, the legislative,
and the judicial. In fact, the decisions of administrative
agencies probably affect the lives of ordinary citizens more
pervasively and more intimately than the decisions of the
federal courts. Administrative law -- the governing of the
fourth branch of government -- takes on importance because of
its capacity to subject the decisions of administrative
agencies to procedural fairness and democratic accountability.
The modern administrative process dates from the establishment
of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887. Among the most
prominent federal administrative agencies are the FEDERAL
COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (1934), the NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS
BOARD (1935), the SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (1934),
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (1965), and the
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (1970). State governments
generally rely on administrative agencies to regulate public
utilities, to administer workers' compensation and public
assistance programs, to collect taxes, and to supervise land
use and zoning. The gradual growth in the number and influence
of the federal administrative agencies has required that new
principles of law be developed to govern administrative
agencies because they differ so significantly in structure and
function from the legislature and the courts. For example, the
members of an administrative agency are appointed by the
president and confirmed by the Senate for limited terms of
office, rather than being elected directly by the people as
legislators are. In addition, the members of an administrative
agency, unlike other officials of government, are permitted to
combine the inconsistent functions of investigating,
prosecuting, and adjudicating--despite the risks of bias that
such a combination of functions introduces--in order to enhance
their decision-making capabilities. Finally, administrative
agencies, unlike other government institutions, are authorized
to develop policy by a coordinated reliance on trial-type
adjudicative proceedings characteristic of courts and on
rule-making proceedings similar to legislative hearings.
PRINCIPLES OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
The principles of administrative law are rooted in the U.S.
Constitution, the Administrative Procedure Act (a comprehensive
federal statute enacted in 1946), federal legislation creating
the individual administrative agencies, the rules and
procedures adopted by the agencies for the conduct of their
responsibilities, and court decisions.
The Nondelegation Doctrine.
A fundamental principle of administrative law prohibits
Congress from delegating legislative power to administrative
agencies without providing statutory standards to guide the
exercise of the delegated power. The nondelegation doctrine
requires Congress to provide statutory standards in order to
ensure that important public-policy issues are decided, at
least in broad outline, in legislative forums that more closely
reflect popular political sentiments. The Supreme Court,
however, has almost invariably sustained the constitutionality
of statutes delegating legislative power, even when the
standards have been vague and indefinite. A typical formulation
directs an agency to serve "the public interest, convenience,
and necessity." Therefore, many commentators believe that the
nondelegation doctrine has been ineffective in preventing the
unrestricted transfer of legislative power to administrative
agencies.
The Right to a Hearing.
Another fundamental principle of administrative law requires an
administrative agency to grant a hearing to those whose
interests are likely to be affected significantly by the
agency's proposed action. This requirement reflects the
historic judgment that the right to a hearing is an important
protection for the individual against precipitate, possibly
erroneous, governmental action. Administrative law, however,
intentionally departs from the traditional judicial practice of
trial-type hearings. It permits agencies considerable
flexibility in designing hearing procedures that are
specifically adapted to the task at hand. Thus, the procedures
by which an agency conducts its hearings may be ADVERSARY in
nature if factual issues are in dispute or legislative in
nature if policy choices are involved. Sometimes they are an
intermediate blend of trial-type and legislative procedures
when factual and policy issues are intertwined. Whatever
procedures an agency chooses, it must comply with the DUE
PROCESS clause of the Constitution and grant the affected
individual an opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and
in a meaningful manner.
Judicial Review.
Still another fundamental principle of administrative law
requires that decisions of administrative agencies typically be
subject to review by the courts. Judicial review of
administrative action vindicates the rule of law, under which
courts have always been the ultimate guarantors of the legality
of governmental action. It also ensures that administrative
agencies, which may sometimes act with excessive zeal, pursue
their mandate within the limits of their legislative authority
and with a proper respect for individual rights. Nevertheless,
much administrative decision making remains beyond effective
judicial control. No system can hope to review the vast number
of informal decisions that every agency makes regularly.