Getting from Here to There

Milton\u27s genius in Paradise Lost was in urging us to reconceptualize what had traditionally been understood as a tragic fall from grace, and to view it instead as a challenge needful to, and worthy of, the human spirit. The genius of the scholars of the new public law is that they urge upon us a similar conceptual shift. At a time when much of administrative law, as traditionally understood, threatens to become at best irrelevant and misguided, and perhaps affirmatively harmful, they invite us to rethink the nature of the enterprise as well as our ability to contribute to it. They tantalize us with a vision in which law, lawyers, and legal scholars can play a central role in defining and achieving what we as a society want to be. Like Milton\u27s protagonists, we find the world all before us, and we are at once exhilarated and afraid