The Executive Power: Law, Theory and History

This course will examine the nature of “the executive power” from legal, theoretical, and historical perspectives. The executive branch exercises vast legal authority, in the form of executive orders, regulations, enforcement, official appointments, and much more. Yet most of the law school curriculum focuses on the other two branches of government—the legislature and the judiciary. This course helps students to understand the complex relationships, powers and duties that constitute the executive. We will consider political philosophies of executive power; the early constitutional understanding of the executive; the development of the modern administrative state and the managerial presidency; and recent cutting-edge scholarship on presidential authority.