6.1 Meaning and Nature of Administrative Discretion

The discretion — the power's choice: the authority's room to decide (the yes-or-no, the how- much, the when) within the law's limits. The nature: the unavoidable (the statute's impossibility- of-foreseeing — the general rule + the specific judgment); the lawful-only-within-limits (the discretion ≠ the arbitrariness); the power's-and-duty's blend (the modern view: the discretion's exercise as the duty — not the mere license).