Title: Administrative Regulations – Sources of American Law
Headings: Administrative Regulations
Administrative Regulations
4.1 Learning Objectives for Chapter 4
4. 2 Delegated Rule-Making Authority
4.3 Researching Federal Regulations
4.3.1 The C.F.R.
4.3.2 The L.S.A.
4.3.3 The F.R.
4.3.4 Administrative Decisions & Guidance
4.4 State Regulations
4.5 Concluding Exercises for Chapter 4
4.5.1 Introductory Exercise on Researching Regulations
4.5.2 Intermediate Exercise on Researching Administrative Guidance
4.5.3 Advanced Exercise on Researching Regulations
4.6 Recommended CALI Lessons for Further Practice
4.6.1 “Introduction and Sources of Authority for Administrative Law” by Deborah K. Paulus-Jagric and Clare Willis
4.6.2 “Rulemaking: Federal Register and CFR” by Katie Brown and Deborah K. Paulus-Jagric
4.6.3 “Researching Federal Administrative Regulations” by Sheri H. Lewis
4.6.4 “ Agency Decisions and Orders” by Marcia Baker and L. Elliott Hibbler
4.6.5 “Government Documents” by Alicia Brillon
4.6.6 “Attorney General Materials” by Marcia Baker and Maureen H. Anderson

Content: As such, regulations tend to be much more specific in nature than statutes. Executive agencies possessing delegated legislative authority have existed in the Anglo-American legal tradition at least since the 1530s, which happens to be when people also first began recognizing the primacy of legislative rule-making authority to begin with. 106 Since their introduction in Tudor times, however, executive branches tended to exercise delegated rule-making authority somewhat sparingly for the next four centuries or so. Then, in response to the Great Depression in the U.S., the creation of executive agencies and the use of administrative regulations exploded with the New Deal of the 1930s. The Roosevelt administration pushed for the creation of a veritable “alphabet soup” of federal agencies, partially as an act of job creation, but partially as a way of modernizing the U.S. economy. 107
However, increasing the amount of regulatory output under delegated authority raised concerns about democracy and due process. After all, many of the experts who draft rules for agencies are directly hired by the agency in question and were not elected by voters. In order to assuage these concerns, the federal government developed a unique system of publication of regulations that allows citizens to comment on proposed regulations before they go into effect. The publication system became formalized by statute in 1946. 108
State executive branches likewise often issue copious amounts of regulations in the modern era.