Inchoate rules postpone policy and delegate power to addressees.

Evidence

An inchoate rule is, in effect, a partial postponement of the authoritative determination of public policy as to the matters left uncertain. In the illuminating phrase of Charles P. Curtis, legal words are vehicles for a delegation of power from the user to some addressee. The delegation is not an unlimited one. How the addressee should use his power is a question to which it will be necessary to give much attention. For the present three points are important: first, that the delegation again and again is there; second that it is in part a matter of necessity; and third, that it may be a matter also of deliberate choice. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2680

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the inchoate rule as partial postponement and delegation of power.
• XREF: Supplies Curtis’s delegation metaphor underpinning the whole chapter. — connects to: Standards demand qualitative appraisal, whereas rules only need factual findings. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2687; Discretion differs by whether the actor must relate reasons across decisions. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2748; Policies state objectives while principles justify them with reasons. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 2711