Chair's Foreword

• Author: Jeffrey S. Lubbers
• Profession: Editor
• Pages: 5-6

Chair’s Foreword

v

Law changes. As a human creation, one constantly “adapted to the vari-

ous crises of human affairs,”1 it could not be otherwise. One could imagine a

perfect and unchanging legal regime; that is the Blackstonian model of the

common law. Justice Cardozo invoked this model when, in a well-known

decision regarding the retroactivity of law-changing judicial decisions, he

referred to “the ancient dogma that the law declared by its courts had a Pla-

tonic or ideal existence before the act of declaration.”2 Whether this concep-

tion of the common law is plausible—few would hold to it today—it’s a

complete nonstarter in the statutory and administrative realms, where law is

inescapably human handiwork. No one has ever suggested that statutes and

administrative regulations and decisions are instances of perfect and unchang-

ing Platonic forms. To stick with Plato: if indeed the world is divided into

being (“that which always is and has no becoming”) and becoming (“that

which is always becoming and never is”), law is emphatically in the latter

category. It is always becoming. Lawyers and lawmakers labor inside Plato’s

cave. Lamentable though that may be, we have no choice, and it does keep

things interesting. And because it is always changing, works such as Develop-

ments in Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice serve a vital role.

This volume is the thirteenth in the series of annual Developments volumes

published by the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice of the

American Bar Association. As always, it is being distributed to Section mem-

bers free of charge. Four “core” chapters devoted to the basic components of

the field—rulemaking, adjudication, judicial review, and constitutional separa-

tion of powers—are compiled in the paperback volume. Additional chapters

devoted to particular substantive areas of regulatory practice are available in

electronic form for download. Each chapter has been written by one of the

Section’s committees. The collection reflects the extraordinary cumulative ex-

pertise found within the Section. I know I speak not only for the Section’s

leadership but also for all those who will use and benefit from this book in

thanking the authors for their time, effort, and generosity.

1. McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316, 415 (1819).

2. Great Northern Ry. Co. v. Sunburst Oil & Refining Co., 287 U.S. 358, 365

(1932).