Due process and the Rule of Law - Essay Example

As Mapara points out, the rule of law can be stated as a legal maxim whereby government is required to make decisions on the ground of known legal principles. A government that operates under the rule of law can be called as a nomocracy. When a government hurts interests of a person without considering the exact law practices, the situation constitutes the violation of due process and the rule of law. It must be noted that the administrative due process is different from judicial due process.

Administrative due process is mainly used to make decision related to administrative discharges. The opportunity to be heard is the main focus of the administrative due process. This process is applied to protect individual rights. As Dropkin and McComas point out, the major aim of the federal due process is to protect fundamental conceptions of justice; and as per the provisions of the federal due process, states need to respect and comply with their communities’ accepted norms and beliefs. 2. Regulation as a Policy Option Regulations which are brought in by the state are usually attempts to bring about certain outcomes which might not be obtained otherwise or to prevent certain undesired outcomes.

For example, a regulation may be made by the government to check foreign direct investment that may inversely affect domestic manufacturers. The common definition given to regulation as such is: ‘an administrative decision that imparts rights and assigns responsibilities’ (OECD). Much of the regulations in the United States are administered and enforced by regulatory agencies. Regulations are the best option in forming policies for a country, because together with the rights enjoyed by a citizen, there are certain duties entitled to perform.

Regulations thus become essential as a policy option, because together with providing the rights, they also allocate certain duties to the citizen. Along with this, regulations become handy in attaining some specific targets or to make certain services available to the citizens. According to Swisher, The policy formed to reduce carbon and fossil fuel emission stand as a model in this scenario; which measures that the macroeconomic models comply with the evaluation with respect to its impact on the energy system and introduces carbon taxes (Para 7).

Such regulations come effective under circumstances like increasing commodity prices, matters related to wages, employment, standards of production, military proceedings etc. There are numerous possibilities that the social or economic conditions in the country taking up an undesired phase and the ability of the legislature to form regulations become extremely important under such circumstances. Regulations on liberalization, privatisation, globalisation etc found in many world countries are examples in this regard. 3. Legislative Oversight over Regulatory Agencies The capacity of legislatures to indulge in the process of lawmaking has been enhanced during the last three decades.

Legislatures stand as an independent assembly, and have assumed a greater responsibility in mandating laws. Legislative oversight, often referred as congressional oversight denotes the supervision of policy implementation. There are a number of federal agencies through which the policies formulated by the Congress are implemented. If the Congress is dissatisfied with an agency, it can react in various ways. Laws can be passed to overrule their decisions or to confine their jurisdictions. For example, as Kaiser, Oleszekc and Taleman point out,