The Unitary Executive in a Unified Theory of Constituional Law: The Problem of Interpretation

Among theoretical issues in the area of federal separation of powers, the status of the Unitary Executive may be the most controversial: To what extent does the Constitution establish the President as a national chief executive with ultimate authority over activities of national administration? In this paper, I propose a model of the Unitary Executive which differs in some respects from prior work, including my own work on independent agencies, which I now view as incomplete. The model is grounded in a unified theory of constitutional law-i.e., a theory that includes issues both of rights and of structure within a single conceptual system.