President/Executive Department Commons^™

The Temptation Of Executive Authority: How Increased Polarization And The Decline In Legislative Capacity Have Contributed To The Expansion Of Presidential Power, Edward G. Carmines, Matthew Folwer

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

This paper argues that our increasingly polarized politics has led to political stalemate and policy gridlock in Congress which, in turn, have contributed to a change in the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government; specifically, executive power has increased at the expense of a diminished legislature. The paper will trace the extent to which Congress has become increasingly polarized and how this increased polarization has reduced Congress's capability and productivity while simultaneously increasing policy gridlock resulting in the expansion of executive power (and judicial authority) relative to legislative authority

Globalization And The Growth Of Executive Power: An Old Story, Alasdair Roberts

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

Americans have always worried about an undue concentration of power in the executive branch. Recently, people have worried that globalization might be making the problem even worse. But the concern is overstated, or at least misstated. Globalization is not a new phenomenon, and most of its effect on executive power was realized decades ago. And globalization might undermine executive power, rather than bolster it, either because globalization undermines the authority of the nation-state or shifts authority to technocrats. If there is a general tendency toward increased executive power in the twenty-first century, this is might attributable more directly to other …

The President's Private Dictionary: How Secret Definitions Undermine Domestic And Transnational Efforts At Executive Branch Accountability, Sudha Setty

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The 2016 EU-U.S. Privacy Shield is an agreement allowing companies to move customer data between the European Union and the United States without running afoul of heightened privacy protections in the European Union. It was developed in response to EU concerns that the privacy rights of its citizens have been systematically abrogated by the U.S. government in the name of national security, and contains a variety of assurances that the United States will respect and protect the privacy rights of EU citizens.

How trustworthy are the U.S. assurances under the Privacy Shield? Both the Bush and Obama administrations secretly interpreted …

Global Cybersecurity, Surveillance, And Privacy: The Obama Administration's Conflicted Legacy, Peter Margulies

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

To analyze the Obama administration's cyber efforts, this Article proposes a paradigm of stewardship with both discursive and structural dimensions. Discursive stewardship refers to the Executive's openness to dialogue with other stakeholders. Structural stewardship refers to the domestic and transnational distribution of decisional authority, including checks and balances that guard against the excesses of unilateral action. The Article concludes that the Obama administration made substantial progress in each of these realms. However, the outsized role of law enforcement agendas and dearth of clearly articulated checks on transnational surveillance drove headwinds that limited forward movement.