USA Law and Practice Contributed by: Mark Haskell and Lamiya Rahman, Blank Rome, LLP
Blank Rome, LLP 1825 Eye Street NW Washington, DC 20006 USA Tel: +1 202 420 2200 Fax: +1 202 420 2201 Web: www.blankrome.com
1. Jurisdiction 1.1 General Rules or Specific Regimes? Overview The United States administrative law system is complex. The US is a federal system with a writ - ten constitution in which governmental authority is divided between states and the federal gov - ernment. State Administrative Law Each state has adopted its own state adminis - trative procedure act to address administrative law issues arising under its jurisdiction. Many of these state administrative procedure acts are modelled after the federal Administrative Proce - dure Act (APA) and track at least some features of the federal APA (further discussed below). See, eg, Texas Government Code, Sections 2001.001 to 2001.903; NY State Administrative Procedure Act, Sections 100–501; California Government Code, Sections 11340–11361. States also adopt agency or issue-specific regulations that can provide for different or supplemental procedures. See, eg, 16 Texas Administrative Code, Sections 1.1–20.605 (rules of the Texas Railroad Commis - sion regulating natural gas pipelines in the state of Texas); California Public Utilities Code, Sec - tions 2771–2775.7 (regulation of electric and gas corporations).
State Judicial Review of Agency Action State administrative practice is so varied in the US that meaningful generalisations regarding appellate review of agency action are difficult. New York State, for example, permits judicial review of some agency action before local trial courts (designated as New York Supreme Courts) through a petition filed under Article 78 of the state’s Civil Practice Law and Rules. Parties generally can pursue only the following types of claim (Consolidated Laws of New York, Chapter 8, Article 78, Section 7803): • an agency or officer failed to perform a man - datory duty; • an agency or individual officer acted outside the scope of its jurisdiction; • an administrative action was contrary to law or an abuse of discretion or arbitrary and capricious; or • an agency action was not supported by sub - stantial evidence. In addition, local and municipal governments often engage in administrative and regulatory activities, which may also be subject to judicial review.
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