Law and Leviathan, Cass R. Sunstein
Law and Leviathan, Cass R. Sunstein
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Law and Leviathan
Redeeming the Administrative State

Author: Cass R. Sunstein, Adrian Vermeule

Narrator: Mike Chamberlain

Unabridged: 4 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/15/2020

Categories: Nonfiction, Law, Government


Synopsis

Is the modern administrative state illegitimate? Unconstitutional? Unaccountable? Dangerous? Intolerable? American public law has long been riven by a persistent, serious conflict, a kind of low-grade cold war, over these questions.

Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule argue that the administrative state can be redeemed, as long as public officials are constrained by what they call the morality of administrative law. Law and Leviathan elaborates a number of principles that underlie this moral regime. Officials who respect that morality never fail to make rules in the first place. They ensure transparency, so that people are made aware of the rules with which they must comply. They never abuse retroactivity, so that people can rely on current rules, which are not under constant threat of change. They make rules that are understandable and avoid issuing rules that contradict each other.

These principles may seem simple, but they have a great deal of power. Already, without explicit enunciation, they limit the activities of administrative agencies every day. But we can aspire for better. In more robust form, these principles could address many of the concerns that have critics of the administrative state mourning what they see as the demise of the rule of law.

About Cass R. Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. From 2009 to 2012, he was administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Since that time, he has served in the US government in several different roles. Adviser to many nations and international organizations, he is the author of Nudge (with Richard H. Thaler), Noise (with Daniel Kahneman and Olivier Sibony), The World According to Star Wars, and Wiser (with Reid Hastie).


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on July 05, 2020

First, find a molehill Law is theater. Lawyers can settle in to argue the meaning of a comma or the word “and”. It fascinates lawyers and judges, and baffles the merely mortal. In Law and Leviathan, Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule dissect the administrative state, possibly the least exciting aspect......more

Goodreads review by Marks54 on December 18, 2020

This is a short and I dare say introductory volume to administrative law, in particular to critiques of the activities of administrative agencies as frequently in violation of the rule of law and the separation of powers as outlined in the US Constitution. The lead author is a distinguished and well......more

Goodreads review by Jason on October 26, 2020

I thoroughly enjoyed it but it is definitely for lawyers and the upper echelons of the administrative state. I was a bit surprised that the good professors could use my Jacobite sympathies to open my mind to defenses of Chevron and Auer.......more

Goodreads review by Fraser on January 23, 2021

Sunstein and Vermeule defend the US Federal government’s current implementation of the “administrative state.” The complaint: A variety of political philosophies today (originalism, libertarianism, and small government folks) argue that Federal agencies harbor an illegitimate and/or unconstitutional......more