Winner of the Scribes Book Award

“As brilliantly imaginative as it is urgently timely.”
—Richard H. Fallon, Jr., Harvard Law School

“At no time more than the present, a defense of expertise-based governance and administration is sorely needed, and this book provides it with gusto.”
—Frederick Schauer, author of The Proof

A highly original framework for restoring confidence in a government bureaucracy increasingly derided as “the deep state.”

Is the modern administrative state illegitimate? Unconstitutional? Unaccountable? Dangerous? America has long been divided over these questions, but the debate has recently taken on more urgency and spilled into the streets. Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule argue that the administrative state can be redeemed so long as public officials are constrained by morality and guided by stable rules. Officials should make clear rules, ensure transparency, and never abuse retroactivity, so that current guidelines are not under constant threat of change. They should make rules that are understandable and avoid issuing contradictory ones.

These principles may seem simple, but they have a great deal of power. Already, they limit the activities of administrative agencies every day. In more robust form, they could address some of the concerns of critics who decry the “deep state” and yearn for its downfall.

“Has something to offer both critics and supporters…a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate over the constitutionality of the modern state.”
—Review of Politics

“The authors freely admit that the administrative state is not perfect. But, they contend, it is far better than its critics allow.”
—Wall Street Journal

Winner of the Scribes Book Award

“As brilliantly imaginative as it is urgently timely.”
—Richard H. Fallon, Jr., Harvard Law School

“At no time more than the present, a defense of expertise-based governance and administration is sorely needed, and this book provides it with gusto.”
—Frederick Schauer, author of The Proof

A highly original framework for restoring confidence in a government bureaucracy increasingly derided as “the deep state.”

Is the modern administrative state illegitimate? Unconstitutional? Unaccountable? Dangerous? America has long been divided over these questions, but the debate has recently taken on more urgency and spilled into the streets. Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule argue that the administrative state can be redeemed so long as public officials are constrained by morality and guided by stable rules. Officials should make clear rules, ensure transparency, and never abuse retroactivity, so that current guidelines are not under constant threat of change. They should make rules that are understandable and avoid issuing contradictory ones.

These principles may seem simple, but they have a great deal of power. Already, they limit the activities of administrative agencies every day. In more robust form, they could address some of the concerns of critics who decry the “deep state” and yearn for its downfall.

“Has something to offer both critics and supporters…a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate over the constitutionality of the modern state.”
—Review of Politics

“The authors freely admit that the administrative state is not perfect. But, they contend, it is far better than its critics allow.”
—Wall Street Journal

"Sunstein and Vermeule pack in a great deal of information, almost a thumbnail course in administrative law…For lawyers, the book provides an easy entry point to the latest developments in a complex and technical field of law...Put[s] forward a new analytical framework for thinking about the direction of the administrative state." - Cipher Brief

"Has something to offer both critics and supporters of the administrative state and is a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate over the constitutionality of the modern state." - Review of Politics

"Law and Leviathan is a useful source to learn about the current state of US public law discourse. The reader can find an interesting mapping of concerns and solutions advanced towards developments which—to different degrees and under various labels—have taken place in most Western constitutional systems, as well as within the institutional structures of global governance." - Heidelberg Journal of International Law

"Sunstein and Vermeule pack in a great deal of information, almost a thumbnail course in administrative law…For lawyers, the book provides an easy entry point to the latest developments in a complex and technical field of law...Put[s] forward a new analytical framework for thinking about the direction of the administrative state." - Cipher Brief

"Has something to offer both critics and supporters of the administrative state and is a valuable contribution to the ongoing debate over the constitutionality of the modern state." - Review of Politics

"Law and Leviathan is a useful source to learn about the current state of US public law discourse. The reader can find an interesting mapping of concerns and solutions advanced towards developments which—to different degrees and under various labels—have taken place in most Western constitutional systems, as well as within the institutional structures of global governance." - Heidelberg Journal of International Law