Administrative Law Research
Overview
Administrative Law is fundamentally practical:
Government business should be conducted with speed and efficiency; therefore the executive
and legislative branches may delegate authority to administrative agencies
Administrative agencies have three main functions:
Rule making—i.e., they make rules which have the force of law (like statutes)
Enforcement—they can enforce those rules by investigation
Adjudicatory—they can hold hearings and hear disputes
Two types of authority:
Inherent power to get things done—orderly procedure in the transaction of business
Power by specific legislation which grants the agency the power to put into effect and
administer certain laws
Sources for this authority:
Administrative Procedure Act
Federal Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. 500 et seq
Washington State Administrative Procedure Act, RCW 35.05
Delegation and enabling acts
Organic act
Establishes the agency, lays out the basic organization, and sets the parameters
on an agency’s functions and responsibilities
Enabling Act
Legislation that delegates to a particular agency the power to interpret and
apply the legislation
Controls of agency power:
Procedural limits through the Administrative Procedure Act
Procedural and substantive limits through Organic and Enabling legislation
Judicial review of agency actions
The Publications
Federal:
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
Compilation of regulations, organized by subject matter
The Federal Register (FR)
Chronological publication of new and proposed regulations; frequently used for
regulatory history research
Administrative Decisions
Published in a variety of sources, some online and some in print, often available through
the agency’s website
Presidential Documents
Proclamations and Executive orders are available through the Federal Register, the Code
of Federal Regulations, the U.S. Code Congressional and Administrative News (USCCAN),
and from GPO Access
Washington:
The Washington Administrative Code (WAC)
Compilation of regulations, organized by subject matter
The Washington State Register (WSR)
Chronological publication of new and proposed regulations; frequently used for
regulatory history research
Administrative Decisions
Published in a variety of sources, some online and some in print, often available through
the agency’s website
Executive Orders
Published in the Washington State Register and available through the Newsroom of the
Governor’s website
Research Strategies
Federal Regulations
 Try a Google search or look at the agency’s website to get started
 If you are starting from a statute or Federal act (you might have to find the particular statute
first), look the statute up on Westlaw or Lexis and use their links to the related administrative
materials, or use a print cross reference table
 If you are starting from an idea or concept, it’s almost always better to use the index on
Westlaw or in print rather than a direct search
 If you are trying a direct search on either Westlaw or Lexis, try to use field or segment searching
(for example, the title in the prelim field plus your search terms), or use a broader search
followed by locates or focus that use fields/segments
 Once you have found a regulation, always go from the particular regulation to the table of
contents to identify other related regulations. This may involve looking not just at the TOC for
the sub-part, but for the whole title
Federal Regulatory History (moving from Federal Regulations to the Federal Register)
 Look at the source note for the regulation in question; if you are on Westlaw or Lexis the FR
citations should be hyperlinked (unless they are old)(in which case, look them up on Hein
Online).
 Remember that the link is to the final regulations. Those final regulations should refer to an
earlier Federal Register that included the proposed regulations
 Generally speaking, the discussion of the comments may come near the beginning of the federal
register issue. Westlaw sometimes divides larger documents into multiple parts, so check to see
if you are seeing the whole document or only a part of the document
 Find (ctrl-F) can be a helpful way of pinpointing relevant sections of larger documents
Washington State Regulations
 Try a Google search or look at the agency’s website to get background information
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If you are starting from a statute, follow the cross references on Westlaw (none available on
Lexis or on free site)
If you know the agency that promulgates the regulation, it can be helpful to use the Table of
Contents (TOC) for the WAC and browse for the relevant regulations
There is no online index to the WAC—there is one in print
Searching for a regulation directly, use Westlaw, Lexis or free site from state
Once you have found a regulation, always back out and look at the table of contents for related
regulations. This may involve looking at more than just the TOC for the subpart, but may involve
looking at the TOC for the entire chapter or title.
Washington Regulatory History (moving from Washington Regulations to the Washington Register)
 Look at the source note to find the Register citation. Remember this is where the final rules
were published, and you may need to refer to the earlier related Register entries
 If you have used Westlaw to find the regulation, you’ll have to switch to either Lexis or the free
site to find the Register entries
 On Lexis, use the Register citation as a search term within the Washington Register Database
 On the free site, if the register is recent (within about the last 5 years), there should be a
hyperlink in the upper right hand side of the page of the regulation in the WAC indicating
“agency filings”
 If there is no such hyperlink, you’ll need to use the WAC/WSR table available on the Washington
State Register page on the Code Revisor’s site
(http://www.leg.wa.gov/CodeReviser/Pages/Washington_State_Register.aspx) Remember to
look in the appropriate year for the register citation
Other Administrative Documents
 Agency websites are excellent sources for other administrative materials published by the
agency, including hearings, decisions or other information about agency actions/policies
 Many agency publications can be found in print—try a library catalog search