Statutory Directives Research Articles

Agency Discretion or Statutory Direction: Decision Making at the U. S. International Trade Commission

SEVERAL papers in economics and political science journals have analyzed decision making of independent regulatory agencies, including the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), and the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB).' Most authors have assumed that agencies have discretion in making decisions and have sought to determine whether this discretion is used to make decisions that can be explained by public choice concepts, such as the desires of current members of Congress. A major weakness of these papers is the failure to consider the extent to which agency decisions are based on the statutory requirements under which the agency operates. This article seeks to remedy this shortcoming by comparing models of

Structural Deregulation and Market Entry: The Case of Financial Services

deregulation, i.e. the removal of restrictions upon entry to or exit from specified markets and upon the permissible range of a firm’s activities. In some cases changes have been achieved via negotiation with self-regulatory professional bodies and in others through legislation and statutory direction. In either event, the effect of removing entry restrictions has frequently been to trigger an inward rush for market positions, typically followed by a later exodus of the unsuccessful entrants. Whatever the long-term consequences of relaxing entry rules, this immediate entry race has attracted criticisms. It has been suggested that it encourages overbidding for existing assets (Wright, Ennew and Starkey, 1992) and the creation of unnecessary capacity. A number of commentators have blamed the severity of the current UK recession on the excesses of credit expansion in the aftermath of financial services deregulation.

Unfinished Justice: Completing the Restoration and Acknowledgement of California Indian Tribes

T HE 95TH CONGRESS DIRECTED the American Indian Policy Review Commission to conduct extensive research on the conditions of unacknowledged and terminated Indian groups. Until the 1970s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs had employed the in deciding cases of acknowledgement or status clarification of an Indian group. Candidates had to meet one or more of the following criteria: possess a history of treaty relations with the United States; be designated as a tribe by an Act of Congress or Executive Order; be treated by the Federal Government as having collective rights in tribal lands or assets; be recognized as tribe or band by other (acknowledged) tribes or bands; or exercise political authority over its own members, through a form of government or leadership.' By the 1970s, some California tribes had been seeking federal acknowledgement for decades or generations. Many of these tribes could fulfill some or all of the Cohen criteria, but were denied acknowledgement, primarily because the Bureau of Indian Affairs was reluctant to undertake to allocate funds and services to them, or assume fiduciary and administrative responsibilities for additional tribes. During the termination era of the 1950s and early 1960s, no California tribes were acknowledged because the direction of federalIndian policy was speeding toward the elimination of intergovernmental relations with all California tribes. In the mid-1970s, the American Indian Policy Review Commission first expressed the need for an independent office to review petitions for acknowledgement under consistent standards without prejudicing the welfare of those Indian groups who already enjoyed a government-to-government relationship with the United States.2 Congress never authorized the creation of the Acknowledgement and Research Branch, nor administrative procedures to review or evaluate requests for Federal acknowledgement, nor to grant acknowledgement to Indian tribes. Still, in 1978, the Department of Interior, acting partly in response to and partly with trepidation regarding proposed legislation, while lacking statutory direction, promulgated regulations to establish formal administrative procedures to extend federal acknowledgement. Under the current regulations, petitioners must meet the following seven criteria (at 25 Code of Federal Regulations Sec. 83.7):

Elements of a Municipal Impact Ordinance, with Commentary

Abstract In this article we offer our view of the organization and content of a model impact fee ordinance for municipalities, with commentary. Actual ordinance language will vary considerably depending on statutory and judicial direction and on local preferences. This model is broad, and it considers the various tests that courts in most states are apt to use if such an ordinance is challenged.

Forest policy directions in the twenty-first century

Summary Policies have considerable inertia and are therefore slow to change. Australian forest policy has been criticised for its overemphasis on wood production in general and on exotic conifers in particular. The eucalypt forest certainly has the biological capacity to sustain much greater yields than at present, given enough time and the right silvicultural inputs. The dominance of timber production is reflected in forestry legislation though not always explicitly. However the absence of statutory policy directives need not inhibit multiple-use management and change in this direction is occurring. Nevertheless, foresters have yet to adopt the same professional approach to managing the non-wood resource that marks their attitude to timber management. Forest services cannot escape their responsibility to provide wood for society's needs but must do so in the context of rational land-use planning. There is a need for more formal public involvement in the decision-making process. Forest policy in the 21st ...

Social Security Appeals Tribunal

In 1975 the Commonwealth Government established the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, its first attempt at an external review of decision. The Tribunal has offered new avenues of activities for social workers, as members of the Tribunal itself, as advocates before it and as advisers to appellants. This paper examines the need for such a process, the structure and operations of the Tribunal and its possible future. The Social Security Act has created a system which combines statutory direction with many areas of discretionary judgement. A successful review process must bring appropriate expertise to the examination of the decisions being appealed against and strike some balance between speed and informality and a thorough analysis of the issues. It should be sufficiently formal for its operations to be understandable and regular and yet accessible to clients who are amongst the most disadvantaged in the community.

Supervision of County Debts in Kentucky

difficulties, both during and after cessation of hostilities, county finances must be ordered and strengthened. The significance of county debts in relation to the ability of local government to carry on its own responsibilities and those imposed on it by cooperative federal-state-local programs cannot be overlooked because of the seeming unimportance of the individual counties. Freedom of action on the part of local units is rigorously circumscribed by constitutional restrictions, statutory regulations, and political intolerance toward local initiative. Unfortunately, little if anything can be done immediately toward removing these impediments; but a growing interest in intergovernmental fiscal relationships may result in a belated realization on the part of the states that financial management by the counties, which function as administrative arms of the state, can no longer be ignored with impunity and that something more than statutory direction is necessary to insure the proper functioning of local government.