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A Precept Of Managerial Responsibility: Securing Collective Justice In Instituational Reform Litigation, Anthony M. Bertelli, Laurence E. Lynn Jr.

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Institutional reform litigation confronts public administrators with troubling dilemmas, court directives often contradict the duties and responsibilities of public managers. Thus, the argument for judicial intervention is rarely straightforward. The authors argue that federal courts should refuse to hear institutional reform cases not only when federal court intervention would upset a state administrative scheme, but also when the institutional defendant is governed by a precept of managerial responsibility. When the agency's challenged actions have comported with this precept, they urge federal courts to let their state counterparts determine the agency's managerial responsibility in a common law process. The analysis begins, …