THE PROPOSED UNITED STATES ADMINISTRATIVE COURT

Authors

Robert M. Cooper, Member of the District of Columbia bar; United States Department of Justice; member of the Committee on Administrative Law of the Federal Bar AssociationFollow

Abstract

The last half century has witnessed a constant, almost relentless, increase of governmental responsibilities and services in both federal and state spheres of control. Due to the changing needs of our economic and social order, the desire for speedy, efficient and inexpensive settlement of controversies and the imperative need of specialized administrators, the task of performing these new functions has not infrequently been delegated to administrative tribunals or commissions. Neither the legislature nor the judiciary was capable of administering the myriad details or countless controversies which inevitably accompanied these new functions of government. As a consequence an administrative branch of the government made its appearance in everything except name-at first merely as an offshoot of the executive department, but finally as a series of independent establishments. Consequently, some writers have expressed the view that there is a fourth power of government in addition to the orthodox tripartite division. Under this expanding system of public administration, the administrative tribunal has become "a great deal more than a mere machine for the application of law." It was inevitable that the function of administration pass beyond the routine enforcement of law to the more substantial responsibilities involved in the creation of law and the determination of private rights as an integral part of the administrative process.

Recommended Citation

Robert M. Cooper, THE PROPOSED UNITED STATES ADMINISTRATIVE COURT, 35 Mich. L. Rev. 193 (1936).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol35/iss2/2