The Administrative Law Legacy of Kenneth Culp Davis Memorial Essay 42 San Diego Law Review 2005

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42 San Diego L. Rev. 315 (2005)
The Administrative Law Legacy of Kenneth Culp Davis

handle is hein.journals/sanlr42 and id is 327 raw text is: The Administrative Law Legacy of
Kenneth Culp Davis
RONALD M. LEVIN*
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. IN TRO D UCTIO N .................................................................................................. 3 15
II. T H E A UTH O RITY ................................................................................................ 3 17
III. T H E R EFO RM ER ................................................................................................. 320
A . A djudication ............................................................................................. 320
B . R ulem aking .............................................................................................. 324
C . C ontrol of D iscretion ............................................................................... 33 1
D . Judicial R eview ........................................................................................ 337
IV . THE PRAGM ATIC O PTIM IST ................................................................................ 343
I. INTRODUCTION
Just over thirty years ago, I was a student in Kenneth Culp Davis's
class in Administrative Law at the University of Chicago Law School.
Davis's casebook and teaching style exemplified an approach that many
law professors of today would consider too didactic. Every chapter of
the book offered generous servings of Davis's own teachings, along with
queries that could only be described as leading questions., In class, too,
* Henry Hitchcock Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis. I
appreciate helpful comments received from Christopher Bracey, Kathleen Brickey,
Richard J. Pierce, Jr., Reuel Schiller, Peter L. Strauss, and participants in the Third
Administrative Law Discussion Forum held at the University of San Diego School of
Law on May 1, 2004.
1. See, e.g., KENNETH CULP DAVIS, ADMINISTRATIVE LAW: CASES-TEXT-