Over the past decade, it appears that administrative law, which is the body of law that governs the activities of government administrative agencies, has been downplayed, allowing various government agencies to function ineffectively. Ultimately, this has resulted in numerous economic and environmental calamities within the United States, that is; British Petroleum, Enron, Wall Street and the auto industry. Most government agencies within the United States are below the executive branch, and few are part of the judicial and legislative branches.
When this legal system, which is also considered a branch of public law, is not strictly regulated, the balance can be upset in areas such as police law, international trade, manufacturing, environment, taxation, broadcasting, immigration and transportation. One of the main responsibilities of administrative law is the application of a specific regulatory agenda. When regulation and adjudication are not followed as stated above, it is akin to allowing the ‘fox to watch the henhouse’.
Under the New Deal legislative plan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democratic Congress enacted several statutes that created new federal agencies to help America out of the economic shortages of the Great Depression. During this time, opponents of the New Deal were concerned that the nation would allow extensive rule, putting the United States in a position of possible dictatorship. In 1946, after ten years of detailed study of administrative regulation, the Administrative Procedure Law (APA) became law.
To provide constitutional guarantees, the APA develops an outline for regulatory agencies and their roles. The basic purposes of the APA are:
(1) require agencies to keep the public informed about their organization, procedures, and rules;
(2) to provide public participation in the rule-making process;
(3) establish uniform standards for the conduct of formal rulemaking and adjudication;
(4) define the scope of judicial review.
The APA is one of the most important pieces of administrative law in the United States.