This title utilizes the CasebookPlus™ platform. Learn more at Faculty-CasebookPlus.com.

Administrative Law: A Contemporary Approach, 4th Edition is a comprehensive reorganization and updating of the 3rd edition, written just as administrative law was becoming the centerpiece in a national discourse on governance. From 2017 forward, nothing seemed settled. What are the metes and bounds of presidential power? Of congress? Of the courts? Judicial confirmation hearings made Chevron, separation of powers, and federalism everyday concerns, but somewhere, in the core of this challenge to governance, the fundamentals of the administrative law field proved up to the task.

The 4th edition provides a current, comprehensive, and apolitical presentation of the substance and promise of administrative law. The book honors and retains the traditional materials while integrating 24 new principal cases and hundreds of references to lower court cases and executive actions.

The casebook begins with the basics of administrative law and the arguments favoring and opposing regulation. The text then moves to the powers of the presidency and the Congress, and concise chapters exploring rulemaking, adjudication, and judicial review thereof. In this interactive casebook, students have access to 260 multiple choice questions and answers organized by chapter, “blue boxes” that highlight major points, and a new feature, “recent sightings,” allowing students to see how and where cases decided decades ago are still of meaningful consequence.

This title utilizes the CasebookPlus™ platform. Anchored by faculty-authored self-assessments, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class with quizzes keyed to each chapter, subject area review quizzes, and helpful explanations. Learn more at Faculty-CasebookPlus.com.


Imprint: West Academic Publishing
Series: Interactive Casebook Series
Publication Date: 02/24/2021

Andrew F. Popper, American University Washington College of Law

Gwendolyn M. McKee Savitz, University of Tulsa College of Law

Anthony E. Varona, Seattle University School of Law

Mark C. Niles, St. John's University School of Law

CasebookPlus™

This title is available in our CasebookPlus format. CasebookPlus provides support beyond your classroom lectures and materials by offering additional digital resources to you and your students. Anchored by faculty-authored formative self-assessments keyed to our most popular casebooks, CasebookPlus allows students to test their understanding of core concepts as they are learning them in class – on their own, outside of the classroom, with no extra work on your part. CasebookPlus combines three important elements:

  • A new print or digital casebook
  • Access to a downloadable eBook with the ability to highlight and add notes
  • 12-month access to a digital Learning Library complete with:
Multiple-choice self-assessment questions, including:
  • Chapter questions keyed to the casebook
  • Black Letter Law questions (available in select subjects)
  • Subject area review questions for end of semester use
Essay and short answer questions with sample answers and expert commentary, in 1L and select upper-level subjects

Leading digital study aids, an outline starter, and audio lectures in select subjects

Students can still utilize CasebookPlus digital resources if they’ve purchased a used book or are renting their text by purchasing the Learning Library at westacademic.com.

With CasebookPlus, you can customize your students’ learning experience and monitor their performance. The quiz editor allows you to create your own custom quiz set, suppress specific quiz questions or quiz sets, and time-release quiz questions. Additionally, the flexible, customized reporting capability helps you evaluate your students’ understanding of the material and can also help your school demonstrate compliance with the new ABA Assessment and Learning Outcomes standards.

Administrative Law: A Contemporary Approach, 4th Edition is updated, rewritten, and reorganized. Instead of grouping all the materials in two sections, one rulemaking and the other adjudication, the book begins by setting out the historical and current arguments regarding regulation and current controversies pertaining to separation of powers, the metes and bounds of presidential power, and the changing role of congress and the courts as each relates to the regulatory state. That is followed by sections on rulemaking, adjudication, judicial review, and application of ad law in select fields (e.g., criminal detention, immigration, discovery in ad law, education, etc.).

There are number of new features in the book including the addition of 250 cases and materials that are “recent sightings” of older cases. Post-case notes and practice pointers were also revised. However, the bulk of the new material consists of 24 new principal cases, almost all from the Supreme Court, decided between 2017 and the present. A list of those cases with the page numbers in the 4th edition follows:

New Principle Cases

Lucia v. Securities and Exchange Commission................................................................83

Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau............................................. 90

The Emoluments Case In Re Donald J. Trump............................................................... 117

Trump v. Hawaii..............................................................................................................122

Trump v. Vance................................................................................................................127

Trump v. Mazars..............................................................................................................130

Gundy v. United States.....................................................................................................148

Oil States Energy Services v. Greene’s Energy Group....................................................224

NLRB v. Noel Canning.....................................................................................................236

Patchak v. Zinke, Secretary of the Interior, et al. [Patchak II].......................................243

East Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Trump..........................................................................299

The DACA Case: Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of University of California........................................................................................................................325

SAFARI and the NRA v. United States (ZINKE) [Department of Interior]....................339

DOC v. New York............................................................................................................347

Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissigiam......................................................401

Bostock v. Clayton County.............................................................................................433

Biestek v. Berryhill, Acting Comm’r of Social Security.................................................502

National Association of Homebuilders v. United States Army Corps of Engineers......635

United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes.......................................................652

Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania Et Al...............678

Encino Motorcars v. Navarro.........................................................................................696

Kisor v. Wilkie, Secretary of Veterans Affairs................................................................712

Ky. Dept. of Corrections v. Thompson...........................................................................1095

Food Mktg. Inst. v. Argus Leader Media.......................................................................1212

Learn more about this series.