Overview

Modern administrative law has been the subject of intense and protracted intellectual debate, from legal theorists to such high-profile judicial confirmations as those conducted for Supreme Court justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. On one side, defenders of limited government argue that the growth of the administrative state threatens traditional ideas of private property, freedom of contract, and limited government. On the other, modern progressives champion a large administrative state that delegates to key agencies in the executive branch, rather than to Congress, broad discretion to implement major social and institutional reforms. In this book, Richard A. Epstein, one of America's most prominent legal scholars, provides a withering critique of how theadministrative state has gone astray since the New Deal. First examining how federal administrative powers worked well in an earlier age of limited government, dealing with such issues as land grants, patents, tariffs and government employment contracts, Epstein then explains how modern broad mandates for delegated authority are inconsistent with the rule of law and lead to systematic abuse in a wide range of subject matter areas: environmental law; labor law; food and drug law; communications laws, securities law and more. He offers detailed critiques of major administrative laws that are now under reconsideration in the Supreme Court and provides recommendations as to how the Supreme Court can roll back the administrative state in a coherent way.

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9781538141496

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Reviews

Richard Epstein is one of the very few scholars who can speak with authority about a subject as broad as the morality of administrative law. In this superb, clearly written and informative book, he contrasts traditional and modern administrative law and makes a powerful case that the modern administrative state fails the most important test of a legal system: consistently advancing the Rule of Law. -- Peter J. Wallison, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein in the Administrative State A comprehensive criticism of modern administrative law, from its first principles to its finest details-in other words, quintessential Richard Epstein. -- Adam White, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Director of George Mason University's C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State

Richard Epstein is one of the very few scholars who can speak with authority about a subject as broad as the morality of administrative law. In this superb, clearly written and informative book, he contrasts traditional and modern administrative law and makes a powerful case that the modern administrative state fails the most important test of a legal system: consistently advancing the Rule of Law.--Peter J. Wallison, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein in the Administrative State A comprehensive criticism of modern administrative law, from its first principles to its finest details--in other words, quintessential Richard Epstein.--Adam White, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Director of George Mason University's C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State Thousands of new regulations are churned out by the administrative state each year. Courts enable federal agencies to expand their powers beyond those authorized by our elected representatives -- even as these same courts limit executive efforts to rein in the bureaucracy. Richard Epstein's new book illuminates the problem and lights a path for the Supreme Court to return administrative law to its statutory, historical, and moral foundations.--James R. Copland, Director of Legal Policy, The Manhattan Institute

A comprehensive criticism of modern administrative law, from its first principles to its finest details-in other words, quintessential Richard Epstein. -- Adam White, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Director of George Mason University's C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State Richard Epstein is one of the very few scholars who can speak with authority about a subject as broad as the morality of administrative law. In this superb, clearly written and informative book, he contrasts traditional and modern administrative law and makes a powerful case that the modern administrative state fails the most important test of a legal system: consistently advancing the Rule of Law. -- Peter J. Wallison, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein in the Administrative State

Richard Epstein is one of the very few scholars who can speak with authority about a subject as broad as the morality of administrative law. In this superb, clearly written and informative book, he contrasts traditional and modern administrative law and makes a powerful case that the modern administrative state fails the most important test of a legal system: consistently advancing the Rule of Law.--Peter J. Wallison, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein in the Administrative State A comprehensive criticism of modern administrative law, from its first principles to its finest details--in other words, quintessential Richard Epstein.--Peter J. Wallison, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Judicial Fortitude: The Last Chance to Rein in the Administrative State

Author Information

Richard A. Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law, is the author of The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government and Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration, and the Rule of Law.

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