Description

The paper is the rough draft of an article written for publication in France, and so seeks to illustrate some differences between parliamentary governments, with their substantial legislative discipline, and the author’s own. The presidency of Donald Trump has posed major challenges to the rule of law in author’s jurisdiction. It has underscored the paucity of clear guidance about presidential authority, particularly in relation to the ordinary activities of domestic government. Building on trends that have been in place at least since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, he is asserting a right of “command” that the author finds difficult to square with his Constitution, but that nonetheless appears to have won substantial acceptance. The paper explains a number of the developments that have troubled the author.

About The Speaker

Professor Peter L. Strauss is the Betts Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. He teaches courses in administrative law, legal methods, and legislation. He joined the faculty in 1971, and has twice served as vice dean. One of the most influential American scholars of administrative law, Prof. Strauss has prepared important teaching materials and written widely on the subject. His views and analysis are well captured in “Administrative Justice in the United States”, (3d ed. 2016, Carolina Academic Press). He received his LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1964 and his A.B. from Harvard College in 1961. Before joining the Law School, he clerked for David L. Bazelon and William J. Brennan in Washington, D.C.; spent two years lecturing on criminal law in the national university of Ethiopia; and three years as an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General, briefing and arguing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. During 1975 to 1977, he was on leave from Columbia as the first general counsel of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.