Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI)

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin | Faculty of Law | Integrative Research Institute Law & Society (LSI) | Jud Mathews: The Lawfulness of Public Law in Germany and the United States

Jud Mathews: The Lawfulness of Public Law in Germany and the United States

  • When Jul 05, 2022 from 06:15 to 07:45
  • Where E25, Unter den Linen 9, Online, Registration: law-and-society@hu-berlin.de
  • iCal

Susan Rose-Ackerman’s Controlling Environmental Policy: The Limits of Public Law in Germany and the United States and Philip Hamburger’s Is Administrative Law Unlawful?, while vastly different books, both engage critically with elements of German administrative law doctrine from a self-consciously American perspective. Ultimately, both conclude that German administrative law falls short with respect to important principles of governance: roughly, Rose-Ackerman finds German administrative law to shortchange the democratic principle, and Hamburger, the rule of law. This essay, a contribution to a Festschrift for Susan Rose-Ackerman, takes stock of these critiques, with a focus on Hamburger’s. We argue that German administrative law doctrine today is practically a proof of concept for how administrative governance can be subordinated to law and rigorously conceptualized in terms of coherent legal categories. Far from being Exhibit Number 1 in the case against administrative law’s lawfulness, Germany demonstrates in exemplary fashion how administrative power can be effectively domesticated by law.

 

Judkins-Mathew_avatar_1485772598.jpgJud Mathews is a Professor of Law at Penn State Law and an Affiliate Professor in Penn State’s School of International Relations.

 

 

 

 

 

The Paper The Lawfulness of Public Law in Germany and the United States is co-authored by Joshua Spannaus.