Back Issues & Abstracts

Article: 

Richard J. Pierce and Sidney A. Shapiro, Political and Judicial Review of Agency Action, 59 TEXAS L. REV. 1175 (1981). 

This article surveys judicial and political attempts to control administrative agencies.  The authors note recent concern over undue agency discretion.  They argue that in fact agency discretion is necessary for its effective functioning and propose that scrutiny of agencies should focus on whether the benefits of having the agency outweighs the cost of occasional capricious decisionmaking.  The hope is that this will focus the debate on the merits of the underlying regulations, which is desirable since many proposed procedural reforms are actually disguised attacks on the substance regulations promulgated by administrative agencies.