Lisa Burton Crawford

Recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) seem to have thrown the administrative state into crisis. A suite of recent cases have limited executive power in important ways—for example, by requiring executive action to be authorised by far more detailed legislation than has previously been required, or preventing executive agencies from performing certain functions that they have been allowed to in the past. These include the momentous decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, 603 US ___ (2024) — in which the SCOTUS effectively overturned the doctrine of Chevron deference.

Why should Australian public lawyers be interested in these developments? What light do they cast on our own legal system, and its particular strengths and pathologies? This post explores these issues, beginning with the complex legislative framework that sustains administrative government here.

Harry Sanderson

A majority of the United States Supreme Court in June abolished Chevron deference—a doctrine which had been a cornerstone of US administrative law for 40 years. The decision was long-anticipated, but is likely to be divisive. This post explains the Court’s reasoning in Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo, 603 US ___ (2024) and some of its possible implications for US and Australian administrative law.