The Conference held its ninth annual meeting in Washington on October 1-3, 1931. Authorized by the Judiciary Act of September 14, 1922, the conference of the senior circuit judges with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Attorney-General has become an established part of the judicial system of the United States. The reports of these conferences are to be found in the annual reports of the Attorney-General, beginning in 1924. The 1922 and 1923 reports may best be found in the Texas Law Review, Vol. II, pages 445 and 448, and in the Journal of the American Judicature Society, Vol. VIII, pages 85 and 92. In view of the general inaccessibility of the reports of the Attorney-General to the legal profession, it has been suggested that they be published in the Supreme Court Reports. The suggestion has not as yet, however, been adopted.

The development of Anglo-American law has been greatly influenced by certain theories and doctrines which have directed and conditioned the evolution of administrative law. Foremost among these are the political and legal theory of the separation of governmental powers and a juridical doctrine relating to the nature and scope of law itself. Briefly, the theory of the separation of powers, which is commonly announced as a fundamental principle of American constitutional law, and is implicit in some phases of English law, is to the effect that laws are made by the legislature, executed by the executive, and interpreted and applied by the courts. As a correlative of this doctrine, it is understood as essential that none of these departments may delegate powers which properly belong to it to either of the other departments, in order that, as the Massachusetts constitution expresses it, “there shall be a government of laws and not of men.”

An analysis of administrative law cases which federal and state courts decided during 1931 reveals some exceptionally interesting problems and tendencies. These will be considered under the following main headings: (1) the separation of powers and administrative action, (2) principles regulating administrative determinations, (3) conclusiveness and appeal, (4) the law of officers, (5) the liability of officers, (6) community liability, and (7) the remedies against abuse of power.

The second regular presidential election held in Germany since the adoption of the present constitution was completed on April 10, following the failure of each of the five candidates to poll a majority of the popular votes at the first election on March 13. As a result of the election, President Paul von Hindenburg was reflected for another term of seven years beginning May 5. This election was important, first, because the Weimar constitutional system was threatened, and secondly, because the threatening force, Hitlerism, if victorious, not only presaged a profound change in the existing form of government in Germany, but might have been the prelude to internal strife, affecting the financial stake of the world in Germany, and possibly endangering international peace.

The Council of the League of Nations being commonly considered in the United States as the League's supreme organ, as the body which represents par excellence the League system and spirit, it would seem obvious that there should have been the greater hesitation, in view of our non-membership in the League and our official anti-League declarations, to have direct relations with it. Nevertheless, the record reveals that it has been impossible for the United States government to ignore the Council consistently, and that, as a matter of fact, official relationships of one kind or another have been occasionally entered into with that body also. These relationships have, in the first place, taken the form of direct correspondence between the Council and the United States, which has been carried on at intermittent periods and on various subjects, but which has involved every Administration, and which by this time amounts to a considerable volume.

The controversy of last winter between a Republican President and a Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives over the President's suggestion that he be authorized by Congress to reorganize the national administrative departments, subject to a veto within sixty days by Congress, calls to mind the fact that during the past twenty years opinion has been almost unanimous in favor of thoroughgoing administrative reorganization, although no legislation going this far has been enacted. Of the various plans proposed, some have been extensive, contemplating complete reorganization of the executive departments, while others have been devoted to special phases of the problem. But on one point all agree, namely, that the national administration must be reorganized before it will function with the desired economy and efficiency. Now, after years of delay, the problem comes to the fore with renewed vigor. Stimulated by the urgent need for economy in federal expenditures, Congress, the President, and the public are again agreed that reorganization is highly desirable as a means of balancing the budget and securing greater efficiency in government.

In 1929, the University of Chicago Press published the first intensive study of the prestige rating of municipal employment, the results of an experiment enlisting the cooperation of over 5,000 residents of Chicago and yielding over 90,000 separate expressions of opinion on the relative status of municipal and private employment. The results of this inquiry were disturbing. The prestige of municipal employment in Chicago appeared to be less than that of corresponding private employment, and special inquiries into the integrity, courtesy, and competence of city employees revealed serious lack of public confidence.

It is now quite well known that, in spite of its non-membership in the League of Nations, the United States has participated for some time in various League activities. The nature and extent of such coöperation have been described and commented on by several writers, and need not be reviewed here. It is sufficient to point out that these relationships between the United States and the League have been going on now for nearly ten years, that they have continually grown in number and importance, that they have become increasingly friendly, frank, and official, and that their continuous character has been recognized and regularized by maintaining a State Department official at Geneva as a sort of “consul to the League.”

Chapter 33 of the Laws of 1931 of the state of Wisconsin authorized the establishment of an executive council. Chapter 361 authorized the council to appoint a committee on business economics with certain functions. These two measures (which now constitute Chapter 15 of the Wisconsin Statutes, Sections .001 to .005 inclusive) resulted from the recommendation made to the legislature by Governor Philip LaFollette in his first message, presented on January 15, 1931. The governor called attention to the need that popular representative government provide a responsible and efficient alternative to direct action in view of post-war developments throughout the world.