Administrative law for a new century

Deregulation, cost-benefit analysis, market-oriented regulatory approaches, declining regulatory budgets, devolution and the delegation of public tasks to the private sector are but some of the hallmarks of what I have called the global era of administrative law. ¹ These deregulatory trends are not limited to the United States. In various degrees, they typify new approaches to public law in various countries around the world. ² Almost all of these reforms are market-oriented; that is, they either substitute markets and the private sector for regulatory regimes or have public agencies use market approaches, structures and incentives to achieve their regulatory goals. Whether such reforms take place in the US, Australia or Germany, the end result is less institutionalized public involvement in decision-making processes that can and often do have widespread public effects. Decisions that were once subject to public law processes and values such as participation and transparency, are now governed primarily by market forces and market values.