Abstract
Leading off the May 2017 issue is a mini-symposium on law in the public administration curriculum. Naomi Caiden’s lead essay sparked the mini-symposium. She raises again the perennially confounding question of why the core curriculum for educating public servants, in the U.S. generally lacks the critical administrative law perspective. Phil Cooper raises the stakes further, stressing how central public law is to the conception and practice of public administration, as well as the possibility of innovations in practice, given the almost universal judicialization of policy disputes. Because so many public servants at all levels of government have professional degrees in fields other than public administration, one can only wonder how much on-the-job training in public law occurs, or how much reliance there must be on the lawyers in public service who have no line responsibility for decisions. Following the Cooper essay are two perspectives on the challenges and opportunities to be faced by raising the profile of law in the PA curriculum. Andrew Osorio and Rosemary O’Leary examine the continuing questions about the interactions between the courts and public management. Susan Sterett, Nicole DuPuis, and Faith Hubbard report on their experiences bringing public law into administra-tive studies through a public service project that revealed the many dimensions to dealing with law in public management beyond court decisions. Together the four articles in the mini-symposium shed light on a nest of issues, puzzles, and arguments that deserve much more attention from those who study administra-tion in society. I invite you to connect with the authors for further discussion and debate at A&S Sine Fine (https://adminsociety.com/), where you can sub-mit commentary, respond to other comments, and engage in an extended exchange of views.