2013

From Blogger

Some Thoughts on Rational Decision-making

Adrian Vermeule has a new paper, Rationally Arbitrary Decisions (in Administrative Law). Here is the abstract: How should administrative law cope with genuine uncertainty, in which probabilities cannot be attached to outcomes? I argue that there is an important category of agency decisions under uncertainty is which it is rational to be arbitrary. Rational arbitrariness […] Read more

From Blogger

The Ever-Growing Administrative State

In his dissent in Arlington v. FCC (noted here), Chief Justice Roberts decried the rise and rise of the administrative state. This criticism nourished an op-ed in the Washington Post by George Washington University Law School’s Jonathan Turley. Here is a taste: The rise of the fourth branch has been at the expense of Congress’s […] Read more

From Blogger

Boilerplate Reasons

The President of France, M. Hollande, has recently suggested that where the administration fails to reply to individual decisions silence should be taken as indicating consent: “dans de nombreux domaines, le silence de l’administration vaut décision d’acceptation et non plus décision de rejet”. The reasoning is obvious: citizens deserve responses from the machinery of the state; […] Read more

From Blogger

More on Assisted Suicide and Guidelines

Richard Ekins has an interesting response to my post Death, Democracy and Delegation over on the UK Con Law blog. I have just posted a comment in reply which is worth reproducing here: I perhaps did not identify my central point with sufficient precision. My goal was to highlight the democratic potential of administrative guidelines, […] Read more

From Blogger

Reviewing Regulations

The Supreme Court of Canada heard argument last Monday in an important case on reviewing delegated legislation: Shopper’s Drug Mart v. Minister for Health. The pharmacies lost in the Ontario Court of Appeal: 2011 ONCA 830; though Epstein J.A. delivered a convincing dissent. Up for discussion at the Supreme Court of Canada was the vires […] Read more

From Blogger

Refusal to Review Factual Error

Common law courts are generally quite reluctant to review decisions for factual errors. Like all generalisms, this significantly understates the complexity of the area. Nonetheless, a recent Irish decision provides a fine illustration. In Richardson v. Mahon, [2013] IEHC 118, the applicant challenged a factual assertion in a report issued by the respondent tribunal. The […] Read more

From Blogger

Death, Democracy and Delegation

I have a new post at the UK Con Law Group blog. I praise the Ménard report recently commissioned by the Assemblé Nationale while reiterating my earlier criticisms of the Irish High Court decision in Fleming v. Ireland, [2013] IEHC 2. Here is the closing paragraph: Whatever its ultimate fate, the Ménard report’s orientation is […] Read more