Judicial Review of Complex Administrative Agency Decisions

A significant portion of the work of the U.S. Courts of Appeals is reviewing decisions and rules of administrative agencies. These cases often require generalist judges to deal with highly technical and complex matters for which their backgrounds have not necessarily prepared them. Their difficulty in dealing with the cases is compounded not only by various requirements of the litigation process that frustrate complete judicial access to the facts of the case, but also by practices of the agencies and their attorneys. This article reviews various proposals to remedy these problems. It concludes that the advantages of an independent review by generalist judges outweigh any advantages of specialized courts or panels. It proposes, however, various procedural innovations that would hold the parties to a more responsible role in the process and promote more informed communication between the parties and the court.