The law involved in the functioning of administrative agencies. Administrative law involves statutory law, and agency law involving administrative rules, regulations, reports, opinions containing findings of fact, and orders. The law that controls, or is intended to control, the administrative operations of government.
The vast expansion of this field of administrative regulation in response to the pressure of social needs is made possible under our system by adherence to the basic principles that the Legislature shall appropriately determine the standards of administrative action and that, in administrative proceedings of a quasi-judicial character, the liberty and property of the citizen shall be protected by the rudimentary requirements of fair play. These demand 'a fair and open hearing,' essential alike to the legal validity of the administrative regulation and to the maintenance of public confidence in the value and soundness of this important governmental process. Such a hearing has been described as an 'inexorable safeguard.' St. Joseph Stock Yards Co. v. United States, 298 U. S. 38, 298 U. S. 73; Ohio Bell Telephone Co. v. Public Utilities Comm'n, 301 U. S. 292, 301 U. S. 304-305; Railroad Commission of California v. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., 302 ...