In administrative law doctrine, much significance is placed not only on what agencies say but on the format they use to say it. Interpretations of statutes expressed in legislative rules carry the force of law—i.e., are legally binding on private parties—so must comply with Administrative Procedure Act (APA) notice and comment requirements and usually are […]
As Elizabeth Porter and Kathryn Watts noted in their contribution to this symposium on how agencies communicate (as well as Michael Herz in his contribution), federal agencies have begun to utilize social media and other channels to explain and promote their preferred regulatory outcomes. Sometimes such communications take place during the public comment period on […]
The most official way for an agency to communicate with the public is through binding legislative rulemaking. But an agency can send out communications much faster, and at higher volume, if it communicates by guidance—that is, by general public statements, nonbinding, giving its current thinking on how it will interpret the law and use its […]
When regulated entities or the public want to know what a regulation means, where do they look? They will, of course, focus on the text of the regulation. But what other sources bear on how regulations apply? In particular, what is the most authoritative source agencies issue to assist in determining the meaning and application […]
For a democracy to function even a little bit like it should, the public needs to know what the government is up to. A robust press is one mechanism. FOIA is another. But the most obvious is for the government just to tell the public about its projects and plans. Unfortunately, while the government has […]
As the various entries in this Symposium show, agencies enjoy considerable flexibility in determining whether, when, and how to publicly communicate their enforcement priorities and legal interpretations. But sometimes, through statutes like the Freedom of Information Act, an agency may be forced to reveal things that it would otherwise keep out of the public’s eye. For […]
Would you like to hear from the government? Many people might say no. Or at least, not usually. But, of course we hear from the government all the time. Many times, this contact comes from administrative agencies. Agencies shape, among many other things, the air we breathe, the taxes we pay, and the question of […]
Historically, rulemaking has been defined by dense text and linear analysis. Yet, during the Obama administration, a colorful new visual rulemaking universe emerged—one that splashed rulemaking-related images, GIFs, and videos across social media channels. Agencies, interested stakeholders, and President Obama himself used sophisticated visual tools to develop and engender support for—or opposition to—high-stakes federal rulemakings. […]
Although our active blogging on the CFPB debacle now makes last week seem like ancient history, we had a historic occasion to host Judge Stephen F. Williams as a guest blogger. (Here is my introduction; here is Sam Halabi’s review of Judge Williams’s book; and his posts are here, here, and here.) I hope our […]
The following post comes from guest blogger Stephen F. Williams, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit Studying Maklakov’s efforts on behalf of the rule of law inevitably reminded me of issues relating to the rule of law in the United States today. I’ll quote a couple of remarks about […]
The following post is from guest blogger Stephen F. Williams, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. Yesterday I posted a brief discussion of Maklakov’s failure to seek solutions to the “ad law” problems of the Stolypin land reforms: administration by officials of the ministry of internal affairs who were […]
The following post is from guest blogger Stephen F. Williams, a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. My thanks to Professor Halabi for his thoughtful and discerning review. I can only hope that reviews published in the wider world will share those qualities. But as a purpose of the blog […]
I’m very pleased to introduce a series of posts this week on the fascinating new book, The Reformer: How One Liberal Fought to Preempt the Russian Revolution, by Stephen F. Williams. Regular readers might wonder why a blog on regulation and administrative law would spend a week on a book about Vasily Maklakov, a somewhat […]
Many thanks to Peter and, of course, Judge Williams for a book rich with lessons for historians, scholars of the administrative state, and, for me, at least, international relations. In a world where autocracy remains common if more threatened, Judge Williams sets out to explore the prerequisites for autocracies to transition (peacefully, it would appear) […]
In their opening remarks at the March 3, 2017 roundtable, Carolyn Wilkins of the Bank of Canada and Andrew Hauser of the Bank of England described the efforts undertaken by their organizations to understand the capabilities and limitations of distributed ledger technology. Both central banks examined the potential use of distributed ledger technology in large-value […]