Also known as: administrative rule-making · rulemaking · rule-making · agency rulemaking · administrative regulation
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The process by which an administrative agency formulates, amends, or repeals a rule or regulation.
Avalon Pharmaceuticals leases a warehouse from Antonio Alvarado. An agency issues a regulation requiring specific ventilation standards to prevent chemical exposure. After Avalon takes possession, a worker suffers harm because the landlord failed to ensure compliance with the new standard. The landlord faces liability because the condition violates the duty created by the administrative regulation.
Adrian Aguilar operates a delivery service. An agency promulgates a regulation requiring certain vehicle maintenance protocols. A court adopts the regulation as the standard of reasonable conduct even though the statute itself does not expressly create a private right of action. When a pedestrian is injured due to a failure to follow the protocol, the violation supplies evidence of negligence.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Congress enacts a statute directing the Department of Transportation to set production quotas for factories to promote industrial modernization. The agency conducts notice-and-comment rulemaking and issues detailed quotas. Ebony, a plant owner, challenges the quotas. The delegation is valid because the statute supplies an intelligible principle guiding the agency's exercise of rulemaking authority.
Artemis Logistics belongs to a community association that adopts design-control rules for loading docks. The association issues a new rule restricting truck sizes without considering safety data or member input. Artemis challenges the rule. The association must act reasonably when exercising its discretionary rulemaking powers under the servitude.
Aether Technologies leases a factory from Albert Allen. An agency regulation requires containment systems to prevent chemical runoff. After the tenant takes possession, runoff harms neighboring property because the landlord did not repair the system. The landlord is liable for harm outside the leased property when the condition violates the administrative regulation.
Andrew Avery runs a manufacturing plant. An agency regulation sets maximum noise levels near residential areas. A court adopts the regulation as the standard of reasonable conduct for nuisance claims even though the regulation itself does not create a private cause of action. When neighbors sue over excessive noise, the regulatory standard guides the negligence determination.
Formal rulemaking requires an on-the-record hearing with opportunities to submit evidence and cross-examine witnesses. Informal rulemaking involves publishing a proposed rule, receiving public comments, and then issuing a final rule without a formal hearing.
Supporting sources
A delegation violates the doctrine when the statute fails to supply an intelligible principle that guides and limits the agency's discretion. Vague directives such as advancing modern industry without concrete policy goals or boundaries leave the agency free to exercise core legislative power.
Supporting sources
No. Compliance with a regulation does not prevent a finding of negligence when a reasonable person would take additional precautions beyond the regulatory minimum.
Supporting sources
Congress may delegate rulemaking authority that defines criminal violations, but actual prosecution and adjudication of those violations must remain with the executive and judicial branches.
Supporting sources
…alternatives for protecting the privilege which might be devised by Congress or the States in the exercise of their creative rule-making capacities. Therefore we cannot say that the Constitution necessarily requires adherence to any particular solution for the inherent compulsions of the interrogation process as it is…