ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: Text and Cases Chapter | INTRODUCTION Concept of administrative law. Administrative law belongs to the field of public law! which includes constitutional law, criminal law, and international law. There is no agreement as to the scope or bounds of the term. (1) It has been defined in its widest sense as “the entire system of laws under which the machinery of the State works and by which the State performs all government acts x x x.”: Thus, the term would embrace all the laws that regulate or control the administrative organization and operations of the government including the legislative and judicial branches.’ (2) Other very broad definitions refer to it as “the law which provides the structure of government and prescribes its procedure, As distinguished from private law, public law is that branch of law which regulates the relations of the state with its subjects. Public law concerns itself with rights of the State as an entity representing the organized community and the relations of the individual members of such societarian organization to it. On the other hand, rules which regulate the relations of luals with one another, without regard to their relation to their government, constitute private law. See M. GAMBOA, AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILIPPINE LAW 97-98 (6th Ed... 1955). ?Growth of American Administrative Law, by C.W. POUND, cited in V. SINCO, CASES AND OTHER MATERIALS ON ADMINISTRATIVE LAW AND THE LAW ON PUBLIC OF- FICERS 1 (1933). >But the law governing the exercise of purely legislative and judicial functions (except judicial review of administrative acts) is not part of administrative law. 12 ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: Text and Cases xx x,”" “the law which controls or is intended to control the admi- nistrative operations of the government or “the law of governmen- tal administration.”* (3) In a less comprehensive sense, it has been referred to “as that part of public law which fixes the organization and determines the competence of the administrative authorities, and indicates to the individual, remedies for the violation of his rights.”” (4) In a narrower or more limited signification, administrative law has been defined by noted authorities as follows: (a) It is “that branch of modern law under which the exe- cutive department of government acting in a quasi-legislative or quasi-judicial capacity, interferes with the conduct of the individual for the purpose of promoting the well-being of the community, as under laws regulating public corporations, busi- ness affected with a public interest, professions, trades and callings, rates and prices, laws for the protection of the public health and safety and the promotion of the public convenience and advantage.” (b) It is “that system of legal principles to settle the conflicting claims of executive and administrative authority on the one hand and of individual or private rights on the other.”* {c) It is “the law concerning the powers and procedures of administrative agencies including specially the law governing judicial review of administrative action.” (5) As generally understood today and for the purpose of this work, it means that part of the law which governs the organization, functions, and procedures of administrative agencies of the government to which (quasi) legislative powers are delegated and “1 Am. Jur. 2d 806. 573 C.J. 295, citing 47 Yale LJ. 538. ‘id., citing 18 lowa L. Rev. 233. ”F. GOODNOW, COMPARATIVE ADMINISTRATIVE LAW 8-9 (1983). ®V. SINCO, note 2. °E. FREUND, CASES ON ADMINISTRATIVE LAW 1 (2nd Ed., 1928). "°K. DAVIS, ADMINISTRATIVE LAW TREATISE 1 (1958).1. INTRODUCTION 3 (quasi) judicial powers are granted, and the extent and manner to which such agencies are subject to control by the courts." Scope of administrative law. Broadly conceived, administrative law covers the following: (1) the law which fixes the administrative organization and structure of the government; (2) the law, the execution or enforcement of which is entrusted to administrative authorities; (3) the law which governs public officers including their com- petence (to act), rights, duties, liabilities, election, etc.; (4) the law which creates administrative agencies, defines their powers and functions, prescribes their procedures, including the adjudication or settlement by them of contested matters involving private interests; (5) the law which provides the remedies, administrative or judicial, available to those aggrieved by administrative actions or decisions; (6) the law which governs judicial review of, or relief against, administrative actions or decisions; (7) the rules, regulations, orders and decisions (including pre- sidential proclamations) made by administrative authorities deal- ing with the interpretation and enforcement of the laws entrusted to their administration; and (8) the body of judicial decisions and doctrines dealing with any of the above. Thus, administrative law embraces not only the law that governs administrative authorities, i.e., the Constitution (pertinent "See 1 Am. Jur. 2d 606. That the rules of judicial review are parts of administrative law is confirmed by the statement that it is a “simple but fundamental rule of administrative law” thata reviewing court, in dealing with a determination or judgment which an administrative agency alone is authorized to make, must judge the propriety of such action solely by the grounds invoked by the agency. (Securities and Exchange Commission v. Chenery Corp., 332 U.S. 194, L. Ed. 1955, 67 S. Ct. 1575, 1760 [1947].)