Curriculum Guide · Courses

Professor Becker

J.D. Course 025 (cross-listed) | 3 credit hours

This course will study how executive agencies make, interpret, and enforce federal law. Starting with the rules governing the appointment process and continuing through review of agency actions in the federal courts, the course will explore the legal and practical foundations of the post-New Deal administrative state. Topics will include delegation of legislative power; the organization of the executive branch; congressional oversight and appropriations; procedural and substantive constraints on agency rulemaking and adjudication; protection of the individual against arbitrary exercise of administrative power; congressional efforts to legislate open government; and the separation of powers over administration of the law. Among the central case studies that will be investigated is the now highly contested authority of the National Labor Relations Board, an administrative agency created during the constitutional revolution of the New Deal to regulate conflict between labor and management and spur economic recovery.

Students may not receive credit for both this course and the upperclass courses, Administrative Law or the first year elective, Administrative Law.