Jaffe's Law: Reflections on a Generation of Administrative Law Scholarship
72 Chicago-Kent Law Review #4 (1997)
Posted: 8 May 1997
Abstract
Administrative law scholars and practitioners take largely for granted the development of judicial review of agency action as essentially a process of federal common law. Agencies are held responsible to comply not only with statutory and constitutional commands, but also to a more amorphous set of legal doctrines and principles which represent standards of procedural regularity and substantive "reasonableness." In his treatise, Judicial Control of Administrative Action, Professor Louis Jaffe described this independent, trans-statutory scrutiny as "one of the rooms in the magnificent mansion of the law." In this paper, I look closely at the "Judicial Control" text in order to explore the key conceptual move toward independent review in the administrative law scholarship of the 1950's and 60s. A study of the elements of Jaffe's reformulations of the subject of federal administrative law sheds light on current controversies regarding judicial review and its proper scope.
JEL Classification: K23
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation