Professor Michael Herz ·
83 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1217 ·
The Administrative Conference of the United States (“ACUS”) both
shapes and reflects the intellectual, policy, and practical concerns of the field
of administrative law. Its recommendations are therefore a useful lens
through which to view that field. Also, because of an unfortunate hiatus,
ACUS has gotten underway not once but twice. Those two beginnings provide
a kind of natural experiment, and they make a revealing contrast. This
article traces the transformations of American administrative law, as well as
the field’s perpetual concerns, by comparing the initial recommendations of
ACUS 1.0 (1968 to 1970) with the initial recommendations of ACUS 2.0 (2010
to 2013). ACUS issued its first recommendations in 1968. At the time, Richard
Stewart’s celebrated article, The Reformation of American Administrative
Law, was still seven years away, and the rise of the interest representation
model Professor Stewart identified was underway but not complete. Since
then, administrative law has continued to be reformed, moving away from the
interest representation model. Certain issues—for example, transparency, efficiency,
and meaningful public participation—remain central preoccupations.
However, new technologies, a shift from adjudication to rulemaking, the influence
of the unitary executive model, and other developments, all woven into
the more recent recommendations, make the contemporary field quite different
from your grandfather’s administrative law.
