What Is Administrative Law?

Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government.Government agency action can include rulemaking，adjudication，or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda.Administrative law is considered a branch of public law.As a body of law，administrative law deals with the decisionmaking of administrative units of government(e.g.，tribunals，boards or commissions)that are part of a national regulatory scheme in such areas as police law，international trade，manufacturing，the environment，taxation，broadcasting，immigration and transport.Administrative law expanded greatly during the twentieth century，as legislative bodies worldwide created more government agencies to regulate the increasingly complex social，economic and political spheres of human interaction.^[2]

On the face of it，the question，“What is administrative law?”is a simple one:Administrative law is that body of law dealing with public administration.Unfortunately，that simple definition obscures a lot of complexity.In the United States，unlike many other countries，there is no single，codified set of laws dealing with public administration.You cannot，for instance，walk into a law library and expect to find on a shelf The Administrative Laws of the United States or The Administrative Laws of California.Instead，administrative law is tucked away in many different places—in federal and state constitutions，statutes，executive orders，regulations，treaties，and court decisions.All of these things taken together as they affect public administration constitute administrative law.(https://www.daowen.com)

Thus if you challenge the right of your university to suspend you for violating a campus“speech code”，you are dealing with a question of administrative law.So is a pilot who questions the authority of the Federal Aviation Administration to impose a mandatory retirement age of 60 or a computer technician who maintains that his employer has no right to insist on regular drug tests.Similarly，a major corporation that argues that a state environmental agency has exceeded its authority by requiring discharge permits is involved in a question of administrative law，as is a state welfare department that insists that mandates from the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services have impaired its autonomy.Administrative law，then，is engaged whenever questions arise about the powers that administrative agencies may lawfully exercise，the procedures they have used to make decisions，or the rights that employees and clients have in dealing with those agencies.