Categories:

Instructor(s)

Tai, Steph

Course Data

Room 2260
MW 3:30pm-4:50pm

Pass/Fail: Yes

Past Grade Distributions (Fall '22 and onward)
Spring 2023 ZPO

Course Description

This course focuses on the place of Federal administrative agencies and the administrative process in society; emphasizing agencies' powers and procedures, and the relationships among the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government in the development and implementation of public policy.

Learning outcomes: This course is designed to

1. Help you achieve a general understanding of how to actually apply administrative law, both from a private party standpoint and from a government standpoint (regardless of administration). Chevron? Arbitrary and capricious? Ripeness? These may seem like random words to you right now, and oh they so did for me as a law student (I had almost no legal background coming into law school), but I hope these will have practical meaning to you by the end of this course.

2. Help you develop a broader understanding of how administrative law does and should apply to all administrations (regardless of whether you support those administrations or not) and build up your own normative perspective on what "should be" in administrative law in a manner takes into account the fact that an agency can be one that is acting under an administration you love versus one you hate. That is, while you may have your own perspectives on what substantive decisions agencies should and should not make, I hope that you also deepen your own views about how agencies should go about that, despite your agreement or disagreement with the substance of those decisions. Aka, civ pro for agencies.

3. Help you cultivate ways to communicate these doctrines to non-lawyers. Because hey, these will often be your clients (whether you work in the private sector or even for the government.) Whether you can actually communicate with them or not can be a make-or-break thing in regards to whether they want to continue to work with you. No pressure!

4. Give you an appreciation of how a topic that is often seen as abstract and wonky—administrative law—actually plays a large role in modern U.S. law. I hope this will help you in various cocktail party discussions, and even if it seems like it might not, I hope you work it in anyway, because administrative law is actually everywhere and kind of awesome.

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