LAW 740: Legislation and Regulation - spring

An exploration of how statutes and regulations shape the modern legal system. The first part of the course examines the competing theories of statutory interpretation and how courts choose between ¿letter¿ and ¿spirit¿ of the law. The second part introduces the interpretive tools courts deploy, including legislative history, semantic and substantive canons, and doctrines of constitutional avoidance. The third part turns to the administrative state: the delegation of power to agencies, presidential and congressional control, and judicial review of agency action. Along the way, we will consider broader questions of institutional design, democratic accountability, and the separation of powers.