Administrative Law: Chapter I — Introduction

Administrative Law

Chapter I — Introduction

Concept of administrative law. 

• Administrative law belongs to the field of public law which includes:
• constitutional law
• criminal law and 
• international law. 
• There is no agreement as to the scope or bounds of the term.
• Note: As distinguished from private law, public law is that branch of law which regulates the relations of the state with its subjects. Public law concerns itself with rights of the State as an entity representing the organized community and the relations of the individual members of such societarian organization to it. On the other hand, rules which regulate the relations of individuals with one another, without regard to their relation to their government, constitute private law. 
• It has been defined in its widest sense as "the entire system of laws under which the machinery of the State works and by which the State performs all government acts x x x." Thus, the term would embrace all the laws that regulate or control the administrative organization and operations of the government including the legislative and judicial branches.
• Note: But the law governing the exercise of purely legislative and judicial functions (except judicial review of administrative acts) is not part of administrative law.
• Other very broad definitions refer to it as:
• The law which provides the structure of government and prescribes its procedure.
• The law which controls or is intended to control the administrative operations of the government
• The law of governmental administration.
• In a less comprehensive sense, it has been referred to as:
• That part of public law which fixes the organization and determines the competence of the administrative authorities, and indicates to the individual, remedies for the violation of his rights.
• In a narrower or more limited signification, administrative law has been defined by noted authorities as follows:
• It is that branch of modern law under which the executive department of government acting in a quasi-legislative or quasi judicial capacity, interferes with the conduct of the individual for the purpose of promoting the well-being of the community, as under laws regulating public corporations, business affected with a public interest, professions, trades and callings, rates and prices, laws for the protection of the public health and safety and the promotion of the public convenience and advantage.
• It is that system of legal principles to settle the conflicting claims of executive and administrative authority on the one hand and of individual or private rights on the other.
• It is the law concerning the powers and procedures of administrative agencies including specially the law governing judicial review of administrative action.
• As generally understood today and for the purpose of this work, it means:
• the law which governs the organization, functions, and procedures 
• of administrative agencies of the government 
• to which (quasi) legislative powers are delegated 
• and (quasi) judicial powers are granted, 
• and the extent and manner 
• to which such agencies are subject to control by the courts.

Scope of administrative law. FEGC-RJRJ

• Broadly conceived, administrative law covers the following:

1. the law which fixes the administrative organization and structure of the government;
2. the law, the execution or enforcement of which is entrusted to administrative authorities; 
3. the law which governs public officers including their competence (to act), rights, duties, liabilities, election, etc.;
4. the law which creates administrative agencies, defines their powers and functions, prescribes their procedures, including the adjudication or settlement by them of contested matters involving private interests;
5. the law which provides the remedies, administrative or judicial, available to those aggrieved by administrative actions or decisions;
6. the law which governs judicial review of, or relief against, administrative actions or decisions;
7. the rules, regulations, orders and decisions (including presidential proclamations) made by administrative authorities dealing with the interpretation and enforcement of the laws entrusted to their administration; and
8. the body of judicial decisions and doctrines dealing with any of the above. 

• Thus, administrative law embraces the law that:
• governs administrative authorities,
• i.e., 
• the Constitution (pertinent provisions thereof), 
• statutes
• judicial decisions that construe and apply them 
• appropriate principles of justice and equity in particular cases,
• made by administrative authorities, 
• i.e., 
• rules
• regulations
• orders 
• decisions, whether of general or particular applicability. 
• By the term administrative authorities, as used here, is meant all those public officers and organs (i.e., administrative agencies) of the government that are charged with the amplification, application and execution of the law, but do not include, by virtue of the doctrine of separation of powers, Congress and the regular courts.
• Note: But the law that has reference to their purely administrative organization and operations may be considered as part of administrative law. It is not treated in this work. 

Concerns of administrative law. 

1. Private rights.
• The chief concern of administrative law is the protection of private rights.
• Its subject matter is, therefore, the:
• nature and the mode of exercise of administrative power and 
• the system of relief against administrative action.
• Note: While administrative law is concerned with the impact of the administrative process on private rights, in certain areas there is applicable a specific principle that particular administrative agencies are created to protect the public interest and not to vindicate private rights. 
• Public rights and private rights are often intermingled. Rights at some times are characterized by the body of law (public or private) from which they are derived. 
• Perhaps the most usual differentiation is between the legal rights or duties enforced through the administrative process and those left to enforcement on private initiative in the courts.
2. Delegated powers and combined powers. 
• Generally speaking, administrative law is concerned with officers and agencies exercising delegated powers and not with the exercise of the constitutional powers of the President. 
• It is concerned with and results from a fusion of different types of governmental powers in certain public officers which are part of the executive branch of the government including a coercive power over individuals, since the exercise of this type of power by this type of officer runs afoul of the fundamental and traditional principle of separation of powers.

Distinguished from international law. 

• Administrative law lays down the rules which shall guide the officers of the administration in their actions as agents of the government. 
• International law, on the other hand, cannot be regarded as binding upon the officers of any government considered in their relation to their own government except insofar as it has been adopted into the administrative law of the state.

Distinguished from constitutional law. 

• Constitutional Law 
1. prescribes the general plan or framework of governmental organization
2. treats of the rights of the individual; it lays stress upon rights
3. prescribes limitations on the powers of the government to protect the rights of individuals against abuse in their exercise
• Administrative Law
1. gives and carries out the general plan in its minutest details
2. treats from the standpoint of the powers of the government; it emphasizes the powers of government and duties of the citizens
3. indicates to individuals, remedies for the violation of their rights.
• Insofar as it fixes or regulates the administrative organization of the government, administrative law is the necessary supplement of constitutional law. 
• But administrative law not only supplements constitutional law; it also complements constitutional law insofar as it determines the rules relative to the activity of the administrative authorities.

Distinguished from criminal law. 

• Criminal law or penal laws consist really of a body of penal sanctions which are applied to all branches of the law, including administrative law. 
• A rule of law protected or enforced by a penal sanction may be really administrative in character.
• One of the most common and efficient means of enforcing a rule of administrative law is to give it a penal sanction, and the mere affixing of a penalty to the violation of a rule of administrative law does not deprive such rule of its administrative character.

Distinguished from law of public administration.

• Public administration has to do with the practical management and direction of the various organs of the State and the execution of state policies by the executive and administrative officers entrusted with such functions. 
• The subject matter of administrative law is public administration. 
• Since administrative law covers all laws that concern public administration, the two are apparently synonymous with each other. 
• However, a highly technical distinction is observed between them. 
• The true field of administrative law, it is pointed out, refers only to the external aspect of public administration. 
• Thus, administrative law is the narrower branch but it constitutes the bulk of the law of public administration.

Principal subdivisions of administrative law.

• Public administration may be examined in its internal or in its external aspect. 
• This distinction furnishes the basis of the principal subdivisions of administrative law: 
1. the law of internal administration and 
2. the law on external administration. 
• These two aspects of administrative law tend to give rise to the different types of problems. 
• The distinction, nevertheless, is relative rather than absolute, for the two aspects are so closely interrelated and at many points quite inseparable. 
• This is particularly true when it comes to the law on public officers.

1. The law of internal administration.

•  It treats of the legal relations between the government and its administrative officers, and of the legal relations that one administrative officer or organ bears to another. 
• Among others, it comprehends such topics as the:
• nature of public office
• de jure and de facto officers
• incompatible and forbidden offices
• It considers the legal aspects of public administration on its institutional side, i.e., as a going concern.
• This includes the:
• legal structure or organization of public administration;
• the legal aspects of its institutional activities
• e.g., personnel, material, fiscal and planning activities;
• the legal questions involved in overall management of these activities.
•  Among the topics involved are: 
• legal qualifications for office; 
• the legal disqualifications of officers; 
• the appointment, tenure, removal, compensation, and pensioning of officers; 
• the legal aspects of a hierarchical form of departmental organization; 
• the legal relation of administrative superior to administrative subordinate; and 
• the legal relation between the power of removal and the power of direction or administrative management.

2. The law of external administration. 

• It is concerned with the legal relations between administrative authorities and private interests. 
• It may conveniently be divided into four parts: PSSR
1. a survey of those powers and duties of administrative authorities that relate directly to private interests; 
2. an analysis of the scope and limits of such powers;
3. some account of the sanctions attached to, or the means of enforcing, official determinations; and
4. an examination of the remedies against official action.
• Administrative law is principally concerned with the problems of administrative regulation, rather than with those of administrative management. 

Classification of administrative law.  

• Within the category of administrative law, various classifications or distinctions have been drawn. SPA

1. As to its source.  CM
1. The law that controls administrative authorities.
• In this group belongs the:
• Constitution
• statutes
• judicial decisions
• executive orders of the President, and 
• administrative orders of administrative superiors giving directions to administrative subordinates
2. The law made by administrative authorities.
• Administrative law made by administrative authorities includes both:
• general regulations and 
• particular determinations. 
• It constitutes, under delegations of power embodied in statutory administrative law, an imposing and constantly expanding body of law. 
• Familiar examples include:
• presidential proclamations issued under the flexible-tariff clause
• the rules of practice and decisions of administrative tribunals, and 
• the cease-and-desist orders of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
2. As to its purpose.  PS
1. Adjective or procedural administrative law. 
• It establishes the procedure which an agency must or may follow in the pursuit of its legal purpose.
• It is derived from the:
• Constitution or 
• a statute, or 
• from agency regulations.
2. Substantive administrative law. 
• It is derived from the same sources, mentioned above, but its contents are different in that, here, the law establishes primary rights and duties, such as the:
• conditions under which a broadcaster may operate or
• labor practices in which employers and unions must not indulge
3. As to its applicability.  GP
1. General administrative law. 
• It is that part of administrative law which is of a general nature and common to all, or most, administrative agencies. 
• It is chiefly but not exclusively procedural law (e.g., remedies). 
• It includes such provisions:
• which interpret the mandate of the Constitution that there must be "due process of law"; 
• which establish the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies; 
• which make necessary — or render superfluous — a court trial de novo; 
• which provide for hearing examiners; or which provide for judicial review.
2. Special or particular administrative law.
• It is that part of administrative law that pertains to particular agencies. 
• It proceeds from the particular statute creating the individual agency and thus, has little or no application, except in connection with such agency.
• It is at once obvious that most substantive administrative laws fall within this group.
• And so do those procedural provisions that are to be applied only by a given agency in cases falling under its jurisdiction. 
• Example: Laws regulating immigration. 
• They prescribe the conditions and restrictions under which aliens may be admitted to and excluded or deported from this country.
• These laws also contain a great deal of procedural provisions setting forth, for instance, how the government must proceed if it wishes to deport an alien, what administrative remedies the latter may exercise and within what time, and the like details.

Origin and development of administrative law. 

• Recognition as a distinct category of law.
• Administrative law is of comparatively recent origin.
• Under the Anglo-American system, administrative law is not one of the traditionally recognized parts of the law, such, for example, as the criminal law, the common law, and equity.
• However, it is only in the last few decades with the rapid expansion of administrative agencies and their increased functions that a substantial body of jurisprudence has developed in the field and general recognition has been given to "administrative law" as a distinct category of law.
• Multiplication of government functions. 
• Originally, the government had but few functions as there were but few activities to regulate and control. 
• But as modern life became more complex, the subjects of government regulations correspondingly increased, which, in turn caused a multiplication of government functions, necessitating an enormous expansion of public administration. 
• And so the legislature had to create more and more administrative bodies, boards or tribunals specialized in the particular fields assigned to them and to which the legislature and the courts were found not to be equipped to administer properly and efficiently. 
• Growth and utilization of administrative agencies.
• Administrative law developed as the natural accompaniment of the growth of administrative agencies and their utilization in response to the needs of a changing society.
• It has developed from a combination of forces, some pressing on the legal system from without, and some others from within, and it is, in effect, a major response of the law to the complexities of a modern age. 
• To a large extent, administrative law has developed in response to the need for broad social or governmental control over complex conditions and activities which in their detail cannot be dealt with directly in an effective manner by the legislature or the judiciary. 
• It has as its dominant purpose the promotion and conservation of the interests and convenience of the public.
• The theory which underlies a good part of administrative law is that the issues with which it deals ought to be decided by experts, and not by a judge, at least not in the first instance, or until the facts have been sifted and arranged.
• One thrust of the multiplication of administrative agencies is that the interpretation of certain contracts and agreements and the determination of private rights under them is no longer a uniquely judicial function exercisable only by our regular courts.
• Fusion of different powers of government in administrative agencies.
• Administrative law, then, resulted from the increased functions of government, the recent tremendous growth in administrative agencies, and the fact that the agencies created in this period of growth were much more than conventional administrative officials such as had existed under earlier legislation. 
• With their extensive investigation, rule-making, and adjudicating powers, these administrative agencies represent a provocative fusion of different powers of government.
• They are vested with the power to promulgate rules and regulations to better carry out some legislative policies, and to decide on controversies within the scope of their activities. 
• The laws which created administrative agencies, the rules and regulations promulgated by them, and the body of decisions that they have from time to time rendered in the adjudication of cases brought before them, now constitute the bulk of administrative law.
• A law in the making.
• Administrative law is still in its formative stages and is being developed as part of our traditional system of law. 
• The administrative process and its agencies are newcomers in the field of law but administrative agencies are now established as very important tribunals in the administration of justice, making decisions sometimes of vast importance and equal to matters determined by the courts.
• A substantial part of the principles of administrative law in the Philippines is derived from American and English jurisprudence on this branch of law. 
• It has persuasive, though not controlling, force in our jurisdiction.

Scopes of the administrative process. 

• The term administrative process includes the whole of the series of acts of an administrative agency whereby the legislative delegation of a function is made effectual in particular situations. 
• It embraces matters concerning the procedure in the disposition of both routine and contested matters, and the matter in which determinations are made, enforced, and reviewed.

Advantages of the administrative process. 

• The "reasons for resort to the administrative process" or to put it in another way, the advantages of administrative action over both legislative and judicial action, are varied and numerous.
• They have been grouped, however, under seven broad headings. ALT-LLAN
1. Advantages of administrative adjudication as compared with executive action.
2. Limitations upon the powers of courts.
3. Trend toward preventive legislation.
4. Limitations upon effective legislative action.
5. Limitations upon exclusively judicial enforcement.
6. Advantages of continuity of attention and clearly allocated responsibility.
7. Need for organization to dispose of volume of business and to provide the necessary records.

1. Advantages of administrative adjudication as compared with executive action.
• In some fields, Congress may often have "weighty reasons" for authorizing executive discretion rather than administrative adjudication. 
• The latter alternative, however, "where practicable, insures greater uniformity and impersonality of action. In this area of government, the administrative process — far from being an encroachment upon the rule of law, is an extension of it." 
• Congress has resorted to the administrative process as an alternative to executive action not only in the matter of benefits — patents, public lands, and social security, but also in the fields of tax administration, labor relations, public utilities and securities market regulations, and others. 
• On the other hand, functions like the issuance of passports are better handled by the Executive Department of Foreign Affairs. Discretion is sometimes preferable to rule. 
2. Limitations upon the powers of courts.
• Congress has entrusted the administration of some laws to administrative agencies when it might have entrusted it to the courts, for their administration is of such a nature that it could have taken the form of "cases and controversies" cognizable by the regular courts in the exercise of "the judicial power." 
• This is not the case, however, with the issuance of rules and regulations of general applicability, the fixing of rates or prices, or the grantor's refusal of radio broadcasting licenses, all of which functions involve discretion with respect to future conduct and hence, will not be undertaken by the courts. 
• Here, the judicial process is not an alternative to the administrative process.
3. Trend toward preventive legislation. 
• The mere existence of the criminal law may have a deterrent effect; but when it does not, all the law can do is to impose punishment after the crime has been committed. 
• The mere existence of the law of torts and of contracts may also have a deterrent effect; but when it does not, all the law can do is to give the injured party monetarial grant to indemnify the damages incurred. 
• Equity has weapons of preventive justice, but only after proof of the threatened injury and for use in technically "extraordinary" circumstances. 
• The desire for more effective and more flexible preventive remedies has been a factor in the creation of many administrative agencies. 
• Thus, the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) makes it possible for reasonable freight and passenger rates to be fixed in advance, instead of leaving shippers and passengers to undergo the expense of suing the ship owner to recover the difference between the rate charged and a reasonable rate. 
• Similarly, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) administers the requirement that issuers of securities tell the whole truth in advance, in preference to leaving purchasers to their limited action at law against the sellers who made false statements about the securities. 
• For such preventive methods, an administrative agency is necessary. 
• Prevention is also a major purpose of licensing statutes. 
• It is clearly preferable to assure in advance, by licensing, the competence of airplane pilots than to let anybody fly a plane and punish a negligent pilot after a terrible accident.
• Licensing is both one of the most burdensome and one of the most effective forms of regulation.
4. Limitations upon effective legislative action. 
• Many administrative functions could not be directly performed by Congress, but others (e.g., fixing rates, deciding money claims against the government) could be performed by Congress.
• Instead of delegating rule-making power, Congress could, in principle, incorporate regulatory details into the statutes. 
• But even in such cases, and aside from the comparative advantages of congressional and administrative action, there are limitations inherent in the legislative process which make it a practical impossibility for Congress to do all the things it theoretically could do.
• These limitations include lack of time and specialized knowledge, lack of staff for securing expert information, the complexity of the problems which arise even within the framework of a general policy, and the harmful rigidity which would result from attempting to anticipate in a statute the variety and changing character of the situations which emerge in every aspect of a modern industrial economy.
• Under these circumstances, moreover, if Congress failed to delegate wide powers to administrative agencies, it might lose itself in details to the detriment of its indispensable functions of determining basic policy and holding administrative agencies accountable for net results.
5. Limitations upon exclusively judicial enforcement. 
• Even where Congress could rely upon the courts for enforcement of its policies, the many courts would vary in their application of the law. 
• Since the courts could not take the initiative in enforcement, that initiative would fall to the many prosecutors or law enforcement agencies, or, to private individuals. 
• In the former case, there would be no uniformity in the policy of initiation whereas in the latter case, individuals would bear a burden and expense which, rightly or not, the policy of modern government imposes upon them. 
• On the other hand, a single administrative agency can assume the responsibility for enforcement and can develop, subject to judicial review, uniform policies in the carrying out of that responsibility. 
6. Advantages of continuity of attention and clearly allocated responsibility. — 
• Administrative agencies have the time and facilities to become and to remain continuously informed, and they can be given unified responsibility for effectuating the broad policies laid down by Congress. 
•  Some such agencies specialize in the regulation of a single industry (e.g., Insurance Commission) or group of related industries (e.g., National Telecommunications Commission). 
• Others specialize in the regulation of activities which cut across the whole of business enterprise (e.g., Social Security System, National Labor Relations Commission), but these agencies are informed by experience and have continuous responsibility for enforcing public policies where cost or timidity or inertia would make interested private individuals poor instruments of enforcement.
7. Need for organization to dispose of volume of business and to provide the necessary records. 
• The Social Security System (SSS), for example, must have the specialized staffs and machinery to keep and make available the records upon which judgment on  thousands of claims and applications must be based.
• In varying degrees, this is true of other agencies. 
• "In the registration of securities, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) must be organized to collect and collate huge masses of data available for immediate reference by clerks, accountants, analysts, oil and gas experts, engineers and the like." 
• Time may be of the essence, as where, in the registration of securities, procedures and staffs must be available to investigate speedily in order to determine whether a stop order shall be issued.

Criticisms against administrative action. 

• The recognized weaknesses of administrative agencies considered typical have been summed up as follows: TLS-DAD

1. Tendency towards arbitrariness;
2. Lack of legal knowledge and aptitude in sound judicial technique;
3. Susceptibility to political bias or pressure, often brought about by uncertainty of tenure; 
4. A disregard for the safeguards that insure a full and fair hearing; 
5. Absence of standard rules of procedure suitable to the activities of each agency; and
6. A dangerous combination of legislative, executive, and judicial functions.

Relation between administrative agencies and courts.

1. Collaborative instrumentalities.
• Despite the differences between the administrative and judicial processes, they are to be deemed collaborative instrumentalities of justice. 
• Collaboration of judicial power and function with the administrative process is a necessary part of today's legal system, and the appropriate independence of each should be respected by the other. 
• In effecting the collaboration of courts and agencies, courts may entertain action brought before them, but call to their aid the appropriate administrative agency on questions within its administrative competence.
2. Role of courts. 
• The relation between courts and administrative agencies is not that between upper and lower courts nor is it the function of the courts to act as a super commission. The role of the courts is: APR
1. to accommodate the administrative process to the traditional judicial system;
2. to accommodate private rights and the public interest in the powers reposed in administrative agencies; and
3. to reconcile in the field of administrative action, democratic safeguards and standards of fair play with the effective conduct of government. 
3. Discharge of judicial role.
• In the light of this judicial role in relation to administrative law, courts must aim: MGLL
1. to maintain the Constitution by seeing that powers are not unlawfully vested in administrative agencies and to maintain the constitutional and statutory rights of persons by seeing that powers lawfully vested in administrative agencies are lawfully exercised but without abdicating their judicial responsibility; 
2. to give due deference to the role of the administrative agencies, and not to usurp or unwarrantedly limit the powers and functions lawfully vested in them, or interfere with the proper exercise of their valid powers;
3. to lend the powers of the court to the proper attainment of the valid objectives of the administrative agency; and
4. to leave to the legislature or the people the remedy for administrative action which may be unwise or undesirable but is within the lawful powers of the agency. 
• The courts are not the advisers of administrative agencies.

Administration of government distinguished from administration of justice.

• Administrative officers 
• those charged with the administration of government 
• Judicial officers
• those charged with the administration of justice 
• The difference between the two functions lies in the nature of the work done by the two groups of officers. 
• Judicial officers
• work done consists in the decision of controversies between individuals and government officers, as to the applicability in the cases in question of a particular rule of law;
• all that judicial officers have to do is to determine what law is applicable to the facts brought before them; 
• Administrative officers
• not necessarily, or even often, the result of any controversy and is not merely dependent on the solution of the question "what is the law" but made also as a result of consideration of expediency;
• administrative officers must determine, of course, what is the law in order to determine whether they are competent to act, but furthermore, they must decide whether in case they are competent to act, it is wise for them to act.

Administration as a separate power. 

• In the traditional classification of governmental power, no recognition is given to administration as a separate function of government. 
• It was and is still confused with and treated as a part of the executive function. 
• The term probably cannot be so plainly defined because it may slightly overlap the legislative field and the judicial field. 
• It may, however, be viewed in two senses, to wit: 

1. As a function.
• "Administration" is the execution, in nonjudicial matters, of the law or will of the State as expressed by the competent authority. 
• Taken in this narrow but proper sense, it is the activity of the executive officers of the government. 
• Whenever we see the government in action as opposed to deliberation or the rendering of a judicial decision, there is administration. 
• Thus, it is to be found in all manifestations of executive action. 
• Legislation consists in laying down laws or rules for the future. 
• Administration, therefore, had to do with the carrying of laws into effect — their application to the current affairs by way of management and oversight, including investigation, regulation and control in accordance with and in execution of the principles prescribed by the lawmaker. 
• As a function, administration may be internal or external.
2. As an organization.
• "Administration" is spoken of accompanied by the definite article "the."
• Thus, "the administration" means popularly the most important administrative authorities. 
• It is that group or aggregate of persons in whose hands the reins of the government are for the time being. 
• It is the entire administrative organization extending from the Chief Executive down to the most humble of his subordinates. 

• In short, administration is both the function of execution of the law (or management of government affairs) and the totality of the executive and administrative authorities.

Administration as an organization distinguished from government.

• Government
• refers to that "institution or aggregate of institutions by which an independent society makes and carries out those rules of action which are necessary to enable men to live in a civilized state, or which are imposed upon the people forming that society by those who possess the power or authority of prescribing them."
• Government is the aggregate of authorities which rule a society.
• Administration 
• refers to the aggregate of those persons in whose hands the reins of government are entrusted by the people for the time being.