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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Latest update: September 14, 1999
Curran or
Takata.
jeanne's Lecture Notes on Exercise 6: Merging Law and Practice
Sample E-Mails on Merging Law and Practice
Materials for this exercise on pp.3-8 of Shuck.
In what sense do law and practice have to merge for agency operation?
Capitalist society operates on the assumption that the market is the primary mechanism for balancing supply and demand, needs and distribution. But there are glitches. Sometimes monopolies emerge, sometimes profits are unfairly taken, sometimes markets fail. Then the government attempts to balance that failure with regulations or intervention of some sort.
Sometimes the intervention is financial, the manipulation of interest rates, an infusion of capital, or new restraints on market activity. Sometimes the government does not act before disruptions occur and cases are brought to court for the courts to intervene. This is when we find doctrinal accommodation. The courts in their doctrines, or theories, must balance the needs of the community as a whole, long term as well as short term, and the rights of individuals to pursue their economic well-being.
The merging of Law and practice is the recognition that practice requires decision-making that requires judgments on the part of administrators as to where the edges of policy come together, and who qualifies for what services. Because fact patterns vary so, judgment is involved, much as it would be in a court case. That is where doctrinal accommodation comes in - where administrative judges have to try to balance the requirements of policy (with theory in mind) and the requirements of the real people or real corporations who need the services. Does that help?