To Find the Best Future System of Agency Adjudication We Should Return to the Past

Authors

Richard J. Pierce Jr, George Washington University Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Status

Working

Abstract

Professor Pierce wrote this essay for inclusion in a symposium on the future of agency adjudication:

In 1946, Congress and the Supreme Court unanimously embraced a method of conducting agency adjudications. We abandoned that method gradually through a variety of steps that we have taken in the ensuing years. We should return to the original model for conducting agency adjudications.

In section one, I describe and evaluate the method of agency adjudication that Congress adopted in the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 after years of study and debate. In section two, I describe and criticize the changes that we have made in that method. In section three, I explain why a return to the original 1946 method of agency adjudication is entirely consistent with the Supreme Court’s recent emphasis on separation of powers.

GW Paper Series

2023-42

SSRN Link

https://ssrn.com/abstract=4536786

Recommended Citation

Pierce, Richard J. Jr, "To Find the Best Future System of Agency Adjudication We Should Return to the Past" (2023). GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works. 1691.
https://scholarship.law.gwu.edu/faculty_publications/1691