Common Law, Equity, and American Public Administration
- 1 September 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in The American Review of Public Administration
- Vol. 32 (3), 263-294
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074002032003001
Abstract
This article evaluates the claims of those who advocate the use of common law as a corrective to the statutory and rule-based excesses of the American administrative state. Their claims are assessed in light of common-law history and in terms of current administrative law. Although many claims are exaggerated or simply wrong, there are some aspects of common law that deserve attention in public administration. These are explained from the perspective of common-law evolution. Common law developed in a very pragmatic and experimental fashion and therefore displays some qualities public administrators will find useful, especially in the adjudicative realm of agency decisions, but more broadly as well. A model with five features of common-law practice is presented for public administrators to use in improving an agency’s decision making under law.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
- Equity and the ConstitutionHarvard Law Review, 1982