Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Eloise Pasachoff

J.D. Course 1035 | 3 credit hours

This course introduces students to the modern regulatory state. We will consider the place of agencies in the structure of modern federal government; justifications for regulation against the backdrop of the common law; aspects of congressional decision-making, including the legislative process, statutory design, and delegation to agencies; statutory interpretation, including both the tools of statutory interpretation and some debates surrounding them; agency implementation of statutes, focusing especially on regulations; and some of the ways that agencies are controlled by the president, Congress, and the courts. As a case study that will thread its way through the class, we will focus on one particular statute and one particular regulation, both concerning auto safety, chosen because of the familiarity of the topic and the way the issue affects daily life. The point of the course, however, is not to teach you about auto safety, but to teach you to understand and work with any federal statute or regulation, regardless of its content. The course is designed to give both a theoretical and a practical introduction to the laws and institutions that lawyers confront in their practices every day, whether they are government lawyers or not.

This course is offered as an elective in Spring 2013 to first year day students only.