Administrative law in the U.S. regulates social relations arising from the exercise of powers by government agencies, the order of their activities, as well as relations arising in the process of judicial control over the administration. Particular attention is paid to the legal regulation of the implementation of external functions of public administration, rather than the intra-organizational aspect.
The sources of norms of administrative law are constitutions, laws, judicial decisions and acts of administrative institutions.
The norms of administrative law regulate the relations connected with the civil service and service in the structures of local self-government.
Administration in the U.S. is an institution that carries out internal organizational management, consisting of: 1) federal administrative agencies; 2) state and local government administrative agencies. Each state is divided into counties and municipalities (institutions of local self-government) according to the administrative-territorial principle.
The regulation of administrative activity comes down to two forms: a) development and adoption of regulatory acts; b) consideration of individual cases of specific individuals and making decisions (individual acts).
The adoption and enactment of administrative acts in the U.S. are carried out in formal and informal ways, which ensure and guarantee the rights and legitimate interests of citizens.
Under Amendment 1 of the Constitution, U.S. citizens have the right to formally petition the Government to stop abuses in administrative agencies. Within 30 days, the Government must respond on the merits, either reject the petition or accept it for hearing, i.e., determine the time, place, and nature of the regulatory procedure for its consideration.
Since the late nineteenth century, administrative legal acts in the United States began to be published. An independent, multifunctional extrajudicial, i.e. administrative activity emerged. Special importance in the organization of managerial activity of American institutions is given to administrative procedure and, in particular, to the principles of publicity and accessibility of the administrative process. Administrative-procedural norms establish the procedure for responding to a private person’s request to the institution. Pre-trial meetings and consultations are widely used in order to simplify matters for the court.
Of particular importance is judicial control over the decisions and actions of the administrations of institutions, carried out in two forms: 1) statutory (lawful); 2) nonstatutory – mainly wrongful orders of the administration.
The priority in US administrative law is given to the issues of administrative and legal regulation of the status of institutions and their officials in the implementation of their managerial functions and tasks, judicial and public control over the activities of the administrations of institutions.
Administrative law of the USA covers wide and diverse areas of legal practice, different types of state legal procedures and rules. The Administrative Procedures Act is the governing law for federal government agencies. Most states have their own laws for their public administrations, which clarify and specify rules and regulations, as well as procedures for those who express dissatisfaction with the activities of public institutions or the decisions they make.
The U.S. system of government in general and administrative law in particular is characterized by the supremacy of the federal constitution, which enshrines the separation of powers among the three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. The courts, endowed by the constitutional power to decide all disputed legal issues definitively, control the other two branches in all matters of law. This has led to their exceptionally strong position in the system of public administration.
U.S. administrative law governs the powers and procedures of administrative agencies, the control of courts over administration, and administrative rulemaking; administrative quasi-judicial activities.
The main participant in the American administrative process is not an institution, but a private person, his rights to participate in this process and the opportunities that are given to this person and his lawyer to protect his interests. Therefore, issues of procedure are dominant in U.S. administrative law.
A great role in the creation of the administrative law of the USA was played by the legislative activity of the Legislatures (representative (legislative) bodies of individual states).