California Regulatory Law and the Public Interest
(formerly known as Public Interest Law and Practice) is a three-unit, graded courses, offered in the Fall and Spring, in which students learn the substantive law governing the operation and decisionmaking of California regulatory agencies. The course is a practicum course, which allows students to monitor California agencies and write an update to be published in the California Regulatory Law Reporter each semester.
Course
In teaching students the knowledge and skills needed by public interest lawyers, CPPC focuses on the law that governs state administrative agencies. In particular, CPPC focuses on agencies that license and regulate business, professions, and trades. Students examine the "sunshine laws'' which require most of these agencies to make decisions in public and with an opportunity for informed public comment (the open meetings laws and the Public Records Act) as well as the Administrative Procedure Act, the statute that establishes the procedures for the agency’s adoption of regulations that have the force of law ("rulemaking") and its taking of disciplinary action against the license of a licensee ("adjudication").
Students also learn about some important limitations on the authority of an agency to take action—state statutory limits, federal constitutional limits, and federal antitrust concepts. Finally, students learn about the governmental milieu within which these agencies function—as part of the executive branch, they interact with the legislative and judicial branches; students examine these important "separation of powers" interactions. Regardless of the area of public interest law in which a law student plans to practice (e.g., environmental or consumer protection; children’s, women’s, or civil rights), an understanding of the functioning of administrative agencies is indispensable.
To enroll in the course, register online.
Practicum Component
Offered each fall and spring, California Regulatory Law & the Public Interest immerses students in hands-on regulatory monitoring. During the course, each student is assigned one or more administrative agencies to track throughout the semester. Students analyze the statutes establishing each agency, the regulations they have adopted, relevant agency decisions, and the industries they regulate. In addition, students observe, document, and evaluate agency actions by attending meetings and hearings held throughout the state at various intervals, many of which are also available for online viewing.
At the end of each semester, students submit comprehensive reports on the activities of their assigned agencies in a specified format. These reports track and cover the agency’s recent decisions including rulemaking, legislation and litigation which affect the agency and/or its licensees, and other important matters. These reports are edited by CPPC staff and published in the Center’s journal, the California Regulatory Law Reporter, which is featured on Westlaw.
To enroll in the course, register online.
The Practicum Component is also available to 3L students as a clinic after they complete the course. To apply for the California Regulatory Law Clinic email info@cpil.org.