Review, Creating the Administrative Constitution by Jerry L. Mashaw
30 Law and History Review 1090 (2012)
4 Pages Posted: 9 Sep 2012 Last revised: 16 May 2013
Date Written: September 7, 2012
Abstract
“[T]here is a hole in the text of the U.S. Constitution,” writes Jerry Mashaw: “Administration is missing.” But the republic’s leaders did not wait a century to start filling it in, as the standard narrative has it; instead, they began building the state’s administrative capacities from day one. Mashaw traces this first century of state-building through innovations in public law, focusing on techniques agencies themselves developed to regulate the exercise of discretion. The practices and norms that emerged form the core of what he calls “the administrative constitution.” With important implications both for contemporary controversies in constitutional law and the future research agenda for administrative law, Mashaw’s richly-researched book is essential reading for students of administrative law, public law history, and political development.
Keywords: administrative law, American legal history, American political development
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