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Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law

University of Miami School of Law, Rm. G-382
+1 (305) 284-4285
Snail mail E-mail Short bio Full c.v. SSRN page
Winner 2020 University of Miami Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award



Current Interests

Current Writing

Recent or Future Writing & Projects

  • Surveillance
  • Anonymity
  • Regulation of Drones

Founding & Editing


Fellow & Advisor


Teaching

The University of Miami is not actually in Miami, but in nearby Coral Gables. Here is the City Beautiful’s homepage and a map of our neighborhood and a close-up. Visit our webcams and see our weather.

At present, I plan to do all my teaching virtually in the 2022-23 academic year. I regret losing someof the personal element that comes with in-person meetings, but my doctors have told me to be very careful, as due to recent medical troubles I’m currently immunocompromised.

Fall 2023

  •  Administrative Law (4 credits) — ONLINE – Fully Synchronous – M/T/Th 11:00am-12:20pm

    Most laws that Congress passes require implementation. Very often implementation is via a federal agency. As a result, in the United States a multitude of governmental agencies exercise authority over the economy, and over the lives of every American. These agencies have the power to make legally binding rules (aka “regulations” or “red tape”), to issue valuable permits and licenses, to levy fines, and to adjudicate. Indeed, one agency, the Social Security Administration, adjudicates more cases every year than all the state and federal courts combined. This is a course about laws and rules that bind federal agencies, and thus about the extent to which federal agencies can make rules and decisions that bind us. It surveys the means by which people (and their lawyers) can challenge or influence administrative exercises of authority in the face of often broad or ambiguous delegations of authority from Congress, and in particular how and when agency decisions are subject to judicial review. Always lurking is the question of how we reconcile our dependence on an unelected, expert bureaucracy with our commitments to a government that is democratically accountable and legitimate.

    Administrative Law is vitally important for anyone contemplating a practice that might involve federal regulations in any way. It is particularly valuable for students who are considering a practice involving highly regulated areas such as: Communications, Disability, Energy, Environment, Family and Child Services, Financial Markets or Securities, Immigration, Labor, Housing, or Land Use, but it is also relevant to almost every other area of practice.

    Today, Administrative Law is undergoing a period of painful ferment as a series of Supreme Court decisions have upended decades of established doctrine. Changes are afoot as to how courts review agencies exercise of discretion, notably when it comes to statutory interpretation. More significantly, recent Supreme Court decisions threaten to upend the administrative state by greatly limiting the power Congress to give agencies broad remedial delegation, and also limiting the power of agencies to experiment or make new rules. Meanwhile, lower courts have been enjoining Biden Administration actions in ways unprecedented since at least the New Deal. Administrative Law is in turmoil — which makes it exciting, but also implicates fundamental questions about how we organize our government.

    Grading will be based on participation, and on an 8-hour take-home final exam.

    This course satisfies a requirement for Concentrations/Areas of Focus in Environmental Law and Social Justice & Public Interest

Spring 2024

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