[We have the following announcement.]
Doctoral and postdoctoral students of European Administrative History, looking to finance the final phase of their research projects, may now apply for a JEVFellowship. Named after its donor and publisher of the Yearbook of European Administrative History, Prof. Dr. Erk Volkmar Heyen, the JEV-Fellowship addresses excellent young researchers regardless their nationality and offers project funding for twelve months at maximum. Application deadline is 30 September 2013.
Prof. Dr. Erk Volkmar Heyen, former Professor of Public Law and European Administrative History at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, Germany, was publisher of the Yearbook of European Administrative History from 1989 to 2008. Via the German University Foundation in Bonn, he recently donated a research fellowship in the field of European Administrative History. The so-called JEV-Fellowship aims to benefit the next generation of researchers and is now open to applicants for the first time. It particularly addresses doctoral and postdoctoral students of any nationality who are able to finalize their projects within a period of no longer than twelve months in case of funding. The JEV-Fellowship is open to all historical disciplines, provided the research project addresses an aspect of European administrative history within the period of the 16th to the 20th century.
The research topic should reach beyond national scope. Comparative approaches are welcome. Applications in German or English may be submitted until 30 September 2013 and should be sent in electronic form to: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Peter Collin at collin@rg.mpg.de. For further information please consult the original call for proposals.
The stipend amount is based on the usual rates for doctoral fellows of the German Research Foundation. In case of research being done outside Germany, the very local conditions will be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, marital status will not impact on the amount of funding. Travel or other costs may not be reimbursed.
Upon recommendation of a jury the Board of the German University Foundation in Bonn decides on and awards the JEV-Fellowship in January 2014.
Metzger on "Administrative Constitutionalism"
Although it sounds more in administrative law than constitutional history, because of Jerry L. Mashaw’s Creating the Administrative Constitution: The Lost One Hundred Years of Administrative Law (Yale University Press, 2012) and the articles (e.g., here and here) and forthcoming book (The Workplace Constitution from the New Deal to the New Right [Cambridge University Press, 2014]) of Sophia Z. Lee (Penn Law), Gillian Metzger’s recently posted Administrative Constitutionalism ought to be noticed here. (Metzger's article is forthcoming in the Texas Law Review 91 [June 2013].) Here is the abstract:
Administrative constitutionalism is increasingly becoming a central subject of study. Administrative constitutionalism includes not just the application of established constitutional requirements by administrative agencies, but in addition the elaboration of new constitutional understandings by administrative actors and the construction of the administrative state. This attention to administrative constitutionalism is overdue, as it represents a main mechanism by which constitutional meaning is elaborated and implemented today. But recently offered examples of administrative constitutionalism are notably divergent, suggesting a need for some exegesis of administrative constitutionalism's different dimensions.
Identifying administrative constitutionalism's various forms highlights the challenges confronting it as a form of constitutional interpretation. Central to these is a legitimacy dilemma: What justifies administrative efforts to move the nation beyond recognized constitutional requirements to develop new constitutional understandings, especially if doing so means pushing at the limits of agencies' delegated authority and acting in ways not initiated by political leaders? In this Essay, I argue that administrative constitutionalism in fact represents a particularly legitimate and beneficial form of constitutional development. But the accountability challenges it poses are real, particularly given the frequent difficulty involved in identifying instances of administrative constitutionalism in action. Agencies' constitutional engagement occurs in the context of implementing programs and enforcing statutes, and often agencies do not expressly engage with the constitutional dimensions of their actions - indeed, these dimensions may only become apparent over time. Similarly, courts are rarely open about the constitutional or law-creative aspects of their development of administrative law. Given administrative constitutionalism's attenuated democratic accountability, greater transparency about this method of constitutional development is essential for its legitimacy.
