ADMINISTRATIVE TERMINOLOGY AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE ACT

Authors

Bernard Schwartz, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

The confusion of terminology in our administrative law is a natural result of the manner in which that branch of law has developed. "The use of terms in administrative law exemplifies its most characteristic element-that it did not spring from a single source but has its roots in many places." The administrative process has not evolved according to a fixed plan; "thus far our Administrative Law has largely 'growed' like Topsy." With the haphazard habit characteristic of our political life, individual administrative agencies have been created as and when the need for them arose, without any logical system. The form of agency chosen, the kinds of power delegated to it, and the safeguards imposed for the protection of private parties, appear often to have been dictated by opportunist considerations peculiar to the occasion. "As a natural consequence the choice of terminology has also been accidental"; and the terms employed have been neither consistent nor scientific.

Recommended Citation

Bernard Schwartz, ADMINISTRATIVE TERMINOLOGY AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE ACT, 48 Mich. L. Rev. 57 (1949).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol48/iss1/4