It is true that location on the rules-standards continuum is an important way of allocating discretion between the issuer of the directive and those who must apply it, enforce it, or interpret it. But the difference between rules and standards is also a way of allocating decision-making between the present and the future. When a legislature, agency, or court sets forth a rule, it is making a decision now about what is to be done in the future. And when instead it moves toward the standards end of the continuum, it holds things open for the future and allows for a flexible approach to the problems of tomorrow.

Unknown, Frederick Schauer - Thinkin…, loc. 354