Administrative Law Definition

Administrative law refers to the body of laws, procedures, and legal institutions affecting government agencies as they implement legislation and administer public programs. As such, the scope of administrative law sweeps broadly. In most countries, bureaucratic agencies make up the largest part of the governmental sector and generate most of the decisions having a direct impact on citizens’ lives. Administrative law governs agency decisions to grant licenses, administer benefits, conduct investigations, enforce laws, impose sanctions, award government contracts, collect information, hire employees, and make still further rules and regulations.

Administrative law not only addresses a wide and varied array of government actions, it also draws its pedigree from a variety of legal sources. Administrative law, as a body of law, is part constitutional law, part statutory law, part internal policy, and, in some systems, part common law. The organization and structure of administrative agencies can be shaped by constitutions or statutes. The procedures used by these agencies can be dictated by constitutional law (such as to protect certain values such as due process), by generic procedural statutes (such as the US Administrative Procedure Act), or by statutes addressing specific substantive policy issues such as energy, taxation, or social welfare. As a result, administrative procedures can vary significantly across agencies, and even within the same agency across discrete policy issues.

Administrative law, in all its varied forms, speaks ultimately to how government authority can and ought to be exercised. By directing when and how governmental power can be employed, administrative law of necessity confronts central questions of political theory, particularly the challenge of reconciling decision-making by unelected administrators with democratic principles. The study of administrative law is characterized in part by prescriptive efforts to design rules that better promote democratic and other values, including fairness, effectiveness, and efficiency.

At its core, administrative law scholarship seeks to understand how law can affect the behavior of governmental officials and organizations in such a way as to promote important social objectives. As such, administrative law is also characterized by positive efforts to explain the behavior of governmental organizations and understand how law influences this behavior. A specific emphasis in administrative law scholarship is placed on the empirical study of how courts influence administrative policy. Although administrative law scholarship has a rich tradition of doctrinal analysis, the insights, and increasingly the methods, of social science have become essential for achieving an improved understanding of how administrative law and judicial review can affect democratic governance. (1)

The Future of Administrative Law

Administrative law lies at several intersections, crossing the boundaries of political theory and political science, of public law and public administration. As the body of law governing governments, the future of administrative law rests in expanding knowledge about how law and legal institutions can advance core political and social values. Democratic principles will continue to dominate research in administrative law, as will interest in the role of courts in improving administrative governance. Yet administrative law can and should expand to meet new roles that government will face in the future. Ongoing efforts at deregulation and privatization may signal a renegotiation of the divisions between the public and private sectors in many countries, the results of which will undoubtedly have implications for administrative law.

Administrative law may also inform future governance in an increasingly globalized world, providing both normative and empirical models to guide the creation of international administrative institutions that advance both public legitimacy and policy effectiveness. No matter where the specific challenges may lie in the future, social science research on administrative law will continue to support efforts to design governmental institutions and procedures in ways that increase social welfare, promote the fair treatment of individuals, and expand the potential for democratic decision making. (2)

Resources

Notes and References

1. C. Coglianese, Administrative Law, International Encyclopedia

See Also

• Civil Law
• Democracy
• Dispute Resolution
• Environment Regulation
• Governments
• Judicial Review
• Legitimacy
• Occupational Health
• Regulation
• Public Administration
• Administration

Further Reading

• Brickman R, Jasanoff S, Ilgen T 1985 Controlling Chemicals: The Politics of Regulation in Europe and the United States. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY
• Coglianese C 1996 Litigating within relationships: Disputes and disturbance in the regulatory process. Law and Society Review 30: 735-65
• Coglianese C 1997 Assessing consensus: The promise and performance of negotiated rulemaking. Duke Law Journal 46: 1255-349
• Edley C F Jr 1990 Administrative Law: Rethinking Judicial Control of Bureaucracy. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT
• Harrington C 1988 Regulatory reform: Creating gaps and making markets. Law and Policy 10: 293
• Harter P J 1982 Negotiating regulations: A cure for malaise. Georgetown Law Journal 71: 1-118
• Hawkins K (ed.) 1992 The Uses of Discretion. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK
• Jordan W S 2000 Ossification revisited: Does arbitrary and capricious review significantly interfere with agency ability to achieve regulatory goals through informal rulemaking?Northwestern University Law Review 94: 393-450
• Kagan R A 1991 Adversarial legalism and American government. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 10: 369-406
• Lowi T J 1979 The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States. W. W. Norton, New York
• Information about Administrative Law Definition in the Gale Encyclopedia of American Law.
• Mashaw J L 1985 Prodelegation: Why administrators should make political decisions. Journal of Law, Econ., and Organization 1: 81
• Mashaw J L, Harfst D L 1990 The Struggle for Auto Safety. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
• McCubbins M, Noll R, Weingast B 1987 Administrative procedures as instruments of political control. Journal of Law, Econ., and Organization 3: 243
• McGarity T O 1992 Some thoughts on ‘deossifying’ the rulemaking process. Duke Law Journal 41: 1385-462
• Revesz R L 1997 Environmental regulation, ideology, and the D.C. Circuit. Virginia Law Review 83: 1717-72
• Schuck P H, Elliott E D 1990 To the Chevron station: An empirical study of federal administrative law. Duke Law Journal 1990: 984-1077
• Sellers J M 1995 Litigation as a local political resource: Courts in controversies over land use in France, Germany, and the United States. Law and Society Review 29: 475
• Shapiro M 1988 Who Guards the Guardians? Judicial Control of Administration. University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA
• Stewart R B 1975 The reformation of American administrative law. Harvard Law Review 88: 1667-813
• Stigler G J 1971 The theory of economic regulation. Bell Journal of Econ. and Manag. Sci. 2: 3
• Sunstein C R 1990 After the Rights Revolution: Reconceiving the Regulatory State. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA