Administrative Agency Obsolescence and Interest Group Formation: A Case Study of the SEC at Sixty

A fundamental precept of American law and jurisprudence is that "laws must change to meet the needs of changing times." In particular, the common law system of judging was thought to constitute a uniquely effective mechanism for dealing with the demands posed by rapid change. As Guido Calabresi presciently has observed, during the nineteenth century judges "creatively manipulated and changed common law rules in reaction to changing circumstances," and thereby "the common law was openly and legitimately kept up to date." But, as Dean Calabresi has observed, times have changed. The United States has become a nation dominated by statutes rather than by common law rules.