Administrative Law and Governance in Contemporary States

Dear Colleagues,

American administrative law is in flux. Important foundations of the American administrative state—the status of independent regulatory commissions, Chevron deference to agency statutory interpretation, administrative adjudication in non-Article III tribunals, and more—are being reconsidered and in some cases overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

These legal developments follow an ongoing scholarly debate over the constitutional legitimacy of the administrative state and its compatibility with basic premises of Anglo-American law and jurisprudence. This debate has intensified in recent years with the publication of major books and articles questioning the very foundations of administrative governance in the United States. It is an appropriate time to consider several critical questions facing administrative law and governance in America and other contemporary states.

First, how have foundational ideas about government by consent, the separation of powers, and the rule of law informed the development of the administrative state in America and similar countries? In addition, how can the history and development of the administrative state inform our answers to current controversies in administrative law?

Second, what role can and should comparative administrative law play in our thinking about current controversies surrounding the American administrative state? Can the American states, or other nations, inform our thinking about the functioning of the administrative state in American national government? We invite scholarly contributions on these and other related questions.

Dr. Joseph Postell
Dr. Bolek Z. Kabala
Guest Editors

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