Archive for June 2009
Free download: Mashaw on terror and the rule of law
Free download: In another of Governance‘s notes on the Obama administration, Jerry Mashaw of Yale Law School reflects on Terror, the Rule of Law, and Institutional Design (22.3, July 2009). Mashaw says that the post-9/11 struggle is a “story of administrative arrogance, judicial hesitancy, and congressional failure.” But he is skeptical that a change in administration will eliminate the long-term threat to American legal culture that is posed by the war against terror. Mashaw doubts that interbranch competition, or reforms within the executive branch, can assure respect for the rule of the law in times of national emergency. The best solution, he says, might be the previously unthinkable notion of “two constitutions” — one for normalcy, and one for emergencies — so that “actions taken and legally sanctioned in extraordinary times [do] not bleed into and shape the normal legal culture.” Sign up for notices about future downloads here.
Governance improves in ranking
Governance has again improved its standing in the 2008 ISI Journal Citation Report, released on June 19. Based on impact factor, Governance ranked eighth among journals in Public Administration in 2008, up from ninth in 2007 and tenth in 2006. Among journals in Political Science, it ranked twenty-second in 2008, up from twenty-fifth in 2007. (It was not ranked in Political Science in 2006.)
