ADMINISTRATIVE LAW

Administrative law encompasses laws and legal principles governing the administration and regulation of government agencies (both federal and state). Agencies are delegated power by Congress (or in the case of a state agency, the state legislature), to act as agencies responsible for carrying out certain prerogatives from Congress. Agencies are created through their own organic statutes, which establish new laws, and in doing so, create the respective agencies to interpret, administer, and enforce those new laws. Generally, administrative agencies are created to protect a public interest rather than to vindicate private rights.

Despite enormous powers, governmental agencies must still act within Constitutional and statutory parameters. These and other limits have been codified, for the most part, into a statute known as the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and state analogs, which provides for the roles and powers of all the agencies, and the procedures by which they must abide by in all their functions. The APA categorizes administrative functions into formal and informal rulemaking and adjudication, which have binding effects, as well as guidance, which has no binding effect. The APA further prescribes certain procedural rules to which the agencies must adhere before acting in one of the functions listed.

The agencies often have their own judicial body, known as Administrative Law Judges, who are part of their respective agency, but must be independent from the agency officials involved in certain actions. The administrative law judges adjudicate claims or disputes involving the agency, as an impartial trier of fact and law, and are subject to the limitations of the APA.