Devins’ Article Selected for ABA Administrative Law Section’s Annual Scholarship Award
An article by Professor Neal E. Devins of William & Mary Law School and David E. Lewis of Vanderbilt University has been honored with the 2024 Annual Scholarship Award by the American Bar Association (ABA) Administrative Law Section. The award recognizes the best work published in the field of administrative law during 2023.
The article, “The Independent Agency Myth,” 108 Cornell L. Rev. 1305 (2023), was chosen after a rigorous selection process. Reviewers noted that it “is broadly applicable to at least several programs or issues,” and “provides a new theoretical construct which will aid in the understanding and development of administrative law.” It also “provides practical recommendations for solving a problem in administrative law, and constitutes an original contribution to existing work.”
The article was also praised for featuring empirical work that is “innovative and illuminating” and for analysis that is “both nuanced and thoughtful.”
The article finds that independent agencies are not independent and, even if they were, independence harms an agency's capacity to implement statutory obligations. Such findings, according to reviewers, “challenge current literature” and their implications “reach broadly into the heart of administrative law, specifically its structure, both today and in the future.”
The reviewers also noted that the article should serve as the basis for rethinking the approach to so-called independent agencies as non-partisan entities.
Devins is the Sandra Day O’Connor Professor of Law and Professor of Government at William & Mary Law School. He is an expert in civil rights law, law and politics, and constitutional law, and joined the William & Mary faculty in 1987.
Lewis is the Rebecca Webb Wilson University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations (Peabody College) at Vanderbilt University. His research interests include the presidency, executive branch politics and public administration.
The ABA Administrative Law Section will honor Professors Devins and Lewis later this fall.