Paul Verkuil's Projects for the Administrative Conference of the U.S. 1974-1992

Authors

Jeffrey Lubbers, American University Washington College of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2011

Journal

Cardozo Law Review

Volume

32

Issue

6

Abstract

I am really happy to be part of this tribute to Paul Verkuil. It may surprise those in the audience to learn that I am bringing some needed diversity to today's proceedings - I am the only other Dutch American on the program! But perhaps my twenty years at the "Administrative Conference" also qualifies me to say a few words about how thrilled I am that we have it back - "ACUS 2.0" we can call it, complete with a website this time- and that Paul is at its helm. And I want to thank Paul for bringing me back to the ACUS team as a Special Counsel.

I am not ordinarily a believer in divine intervention, or even karma, but it must have been something like that when just at the time the Administrative Conference finally achieved funding to start up again after a fourteen-year hiatus, Paul Verkuil was also just ending his one year stint as Acting Dean at the University of Miami School of Law and was therefore available for the ACUS chairmanship. Many of us who followed the long rebirth of ACUS urged the powers-that-be in the White House to consider Paul for that post because he combined such a perfect blend of administrative law scholarship, proven leadership of many great institutions, and a bi-partisan approach to issues that was tailor-made for ACUS. President Obama heard these messages and announced his intent to nominate Paul on November 2, 2009. And it is a testament to his stature that, even in this age of Senate holds and Committee without a hearing, and was unanimously confirmed on the Senate consent calendar on March 3, 2010.

What made this even more appropriate was that Paul was returning to head an agency that he had served at the very beginning of his academic career, and one that had served as a forum for some of his most enduring works of scholarship. I am going to devote my remarks to those works.

His overall body of work covers the core issues of administrative law-adjudication, rulemaking, and judicial review, while also commenting on specific areas of concern in the world of government administration such as immigration, mass adjudication, and outsourcing. His take on administrative procedure is classical - let us try to improve it by focusing on efficiency, fairness, and acceptability - and it is a nice blend of theory and practice.

I will discuss his ACUS works in chronological order. My own first knowledge of Paul's work came when I was a fledgling administrative law instructor at the University of Miami School of Law in the spring of 1975 - trying to get a class of night students excited about the Kenneth Culp Davis textbook (which I had learned from myself two years earlier at Chicago). I was having rough sledding (if I can say that about Miami) until I discovered the Problem Supplement for the Gellhorn and Byse casebook co-written by a young assistant professor at the University of North Carolina named Paul Verkuil. The lively problems in that little volume saved the day for me in that class.

Recommended Citation

Jeffrey Lubbers, Paul Verkuil's Projects for the Administrative Conference of the U.S. 1974-1992, 32 Cardozo Law Review (2011).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_lawrev/1080