The Legislative Process, Statutory Interpretation, and Administrative Agencies

This updated casebook is designed for an introductory class on legislation and regulation. It is practice oriented and uses a combination of highly edited cases and targeted problems to teach students the tools and methods for interpreting legal texts and navigating the administrative state. The text aims to familiarize students with the techniques lawyers use to craft statutory and regulatory arguments, while also giving students a sense of the importance of the government actors. After working through this text, students should understand how statutes and regulations are enacted and interpreted; the role that legislatures, courts, and agencies play in interpretation and regulation; and the breadth of arguments that lawyers can make to advocate for their clients.

This edition was revised significantly to make it even more accessible for first-year law students. Each chapter begins and ends with learning objectives. Text boxes define important terms and canons. New problems are added, and targeted questions now follow all problems to take students step-by-step through them.

The author maintains a listserv for professors who adopt her text. She emails interesting cases, changes in the law, corrections to the text, and additional problems from time to time. Please contact Linda Jellum at ljellum@uidaho.edu if interested in being added.

Additionally, PowerPoint slides and sample syllabi are available for adopting professors on a shared drive. For more information, please contact Linda Jellum at the email above.