The Congressional Choice of Courts versus Agencies to Implement Law
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2023 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2024.
When Congress passes a law to regulate some facet of social or economic life in the U.S., it must decide whether the law will be enforce through litigation and courts or though bureaucracy, or some combination of the two in mixed approach. This project investigates Congress’ choice between courts and bureaucracy for the implementation and enforcement of federal law. The main focus of the project, and the main work of coders, is to build a dataset reflecting how Congress has made this choice in federal legislation. Students will read federal statutes and apply a detailed coding protocol to record information about the role of courts and administrative agencies in the implementation of federal law, ranging across such policy areas as civil rights, labor, environmental, financial, and public health and safety regulation.
Role: See above. The student will gain skill reading legislation.
Qualifications: Students from any background can be trained.
Hours: 6-8 hrs
Social Sciences