Emergency Power and Two-Tiered Legality

Commentators have long debated how to think about the relationship between law and presidential power during emergencies. Three distinct positions have emerged in that debate. First is the strict approach: that the president is subject to the normal constitutional and statutory laws even during emergencies. Second is the accommodation approach: that constitutional and statutory law should be interpreted to allow for more expansive presidential power during time of emergency. Third is the extralegal approach: that exercises of emergency authority should be understood as operating outside the law, potentially with some sort of after-the-fact evaluation of whether the exercise was functionally or morally justified1. Each of these approaches has potential drawbacks. The strict approach’s denial that the interpretation of constitutional and statutory authority changes during times of emergency seems naïve and threatens to make the law either too restrictive or too disconnected from actual practice. The accommodation approach, by allowing governmental authority to expand during time of perceived emergency, may allow the government to opportunistically ratchet up its power and may create precedent that could distort the law during more normal times. The extralegal approach, by placing exercises of emergency authority outside the law, may leave these actions unregulated and undermine the rule of law, and it may be unrealistic if it depends on an acknowledgment by public officials of illegality. In his thoughtful essay, Richard Fallon has added to this debate by suggesting an approach that attempts to keep emergency power within the domain of law while reducing the danger that exercises of this power will corrupt the rest of the law.2Analogizing from “threshold deontology” in moral theory, Fallon suggests a distinction between the rules of constitutional and statutory interpretation that apply during normal times and those that apply during emergencies. Citing Justice Holmes’s observation that “[g]reat cases . . . make bad law,” 3 Fallon’s chief concern is the “problem of normalization: powers created for emergencies spill over their originally intended banks and become the norm.”4 His approach, he suggests, addresses this concern while retaining the rule of law. It also “fits our historical and contemporary practices for gauging the scope of executive authority.”5 At first glance, Fallon’s approach may seem to be a restatement of the accommodation approach. After all, his claim that “[w]hen consequence-based imperatives possess sufficient urgency, it is right to conclude, as a matter of law, that the president can do some things that would be flatly illegal or unconstitutional under the ordinarily applicable rules,” 6 is precisely the claim made by accommodationists. But Fallon’s position is potentially distinguishable in two respects. First, Fallon hypothesizes a two-tiered model that involves both normal law, akin to what is envisioned by the strict approach, as well as a category of emergency law, with the latter limited to “highly exigent cases.”7 Second, Fallon suggests that presidential actions that can be legally justified only in the emergency category “should be regarded as lesser legal evils that are regrettably in breach of,” and not wholly reconcilable with, “ordinary legal and constitutional ideals that emergency does not eradicate.”8 By having the emergency category conceptualized as narrow and as tainted, the hope is that it will be sufficiently cabined to avoid corrupting the rest of the law. Fallon’s analogy to threshold deontology is useful in highlighting some of the dilemmas that emergency power can pose for the law. Nevertheless, I have doubts about the need for, or usefulness of, two-tiered legality. As an initial matter, it is not clear that the idea of a regrettable lesser evil has broad relevance to real-world issues of statutory and constitutional law relating to presidential power. In addition, I question whether Fallon’s central concern—that the accommodation approach will lead to the creation of precedent that will corrupt the rest of the law—is borne out by practice. Nevertheless, I understand Fallon’s anxiety about the danger that the executive branch might extend its authority by tendentiously relying on past practices. This anxiety, I would suggest, relates to the general role of historical practice in informing presidential authority rather than anything specific to the emergency power context, and I therefore question whether a two-tiered legality approach would do much to address it

Economic Development, Legality, and the Transplant Effect

We analyze the determinants of effective legal institutions (legality) using data from 49 countries. We show that the way the law was initially transplanted and received is a more important determinant than the supply of law from a particular legal family. Countries that have developed legal orders internally, adapted the transplanted law, and/or had a population that was already familiar with basic principles of the transplanted law have more effective legality than countries that received foreign law without any similar pre-dispositions. The transplanting process has a strong indirect effect on economic development via its impact on legality.transplant versus origin, receptive, unreceptive, direct and indirect transplants, legality

Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment

informal sector, legality, gender, regulation, policy

Legality and venture governance around the world

We analyze governance with a dataset on investments of venture capitalists in 3848 portfolio firms in 39 countries from North and South America, Europe and Asia spanning 1971-2003. We find that cross-country differences in Legality have a significant impact on the governance structure of investments in the VC industry: better laws facilitate faster deal screening and deal origination, a higher probability of syndication and a lower probability of potentially harmful co-investment, and facilitate board representation of the investor. We also show better laws reduce the probability that the investor requires periodic cash flows prior to exit, which is in conjunction with an increased probability of investment in high-tech companies. Klassifikation: G24, G31, G32

What Bounds A-Legality?

This comment discusses Hans Lindahl’s central idea of a-legality. It begins by positioning the idea of a-legality in the literature on the constituent power of the people, showing how it ad-vances the discussion at hand. Having done that, it raises two questions regarding the conceptu-al and normative significance of the politics of a-legality. Is a-legality contingent on a certain form of consciousness, or a certain form of government? And, what is the basis of the normative recommendation that legal collectives ought to respond to a-legality with collective self-restraint? The aim of both questions is to identify what bounds Lindahl’s idea of a-legality

Legality of Age Restrictions in the NBA and NFL

This essay examines age eligibility rules in the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA), offers analysis of related antitrust and labor law issues, and shares perspective on underlying policies. As a matter of background, the NFL and the NBA are the only major sports organizations that prohibit players from entrance until a prescribed period after high school graduation. Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, NASCAR, professional tennis, professional golf, and professional boxing have no such rules. Individuals can also partake in professional acting, theater, music, and other entertainment professions without satisfying a period after high school graduation. The same is true of those who enlist in the U.S. armed forces and in various occupations that require maturity and discipline. Such an employment landscape raises inquiry as to why NFL and NBA teams, unlike so many other employers, would agree to boycott any candidate, regardless of talent or skill, until a prescribed period after high school graduation. This inquiry enjoys heightened interest when considering that NFL and NBA teams are incomparable employers, as players may not play in other leagues for similar compensation

The Use of Arrest Records In Pre-Employment Screening In Franklin County, Ohio

Researchers reviewed the legality of employers using arrest records without convictions in pre-employment screenings; conducted surveys and focus groups to learn about pre-employment screening practices in Franklin County, OH; and studied arrest record data to determine whether black males in the region were more likely than others to be arrested and not subsequently convicted

Legality and Venture Governance Around the World

We analyze governance with a dataset on investments of venture capitalists in 3848 portfolio firms in 39 countries from North and South America, Europe and Asia spanning 1971-2003. We find that cross-country differences in Legality have a significant impact on the governance structure of investments in the VC industry: better laws facilitate faster deal screening and deal origination, a higher probability of syndication and a lower probability of potentially harmful co-investment, and facilitate board representation of the investor. We also show better laws reduce the probability that the investor requires periodic cash flows prior to exit, which is in conjunction with an increased probability of investment in high-tech companies.Venture Capital, Corporate Governance, Syndication, Entrepreneurial Finance