Recent Faculty Works: Ari Glogower, John O. McGinnis, Ajay K. Mehrotra

Northwestern Pritzker School of Law is home to an incredible group of faculty members working at the intersections of law and many other disciplines. Their research and scholarship has helped advance the understanding of law and legal institutions in a diverse array of fields. Learn more in our “Recent Faculty Works” series about the latest publications and innovations of our faculty.

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The Constitutional Limits to the Taxing Power

93 Fordham Law Review 781 (2024)

By Ari Glogower, Professor of Law, Associate Dean of Curriculum

The modern U.S. Supreme Court has elevated the apportionment requirement for direct taxes into the most important constitutional limitation to Congress’s taxing power. The U.S. Constitution requires that any “direct tax” must be apportioned among the states by population, which is… Read More

Keywords:
income tax, Pollock, wealth tax, Sixteenth Amendment, apportionment, constitutional law, tax law, tax policy, inequality

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Agencies’ Unsound Discretion

Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 25-01, Administrative Law Review (forthcoming 2025)

By John O. McGinnis George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law

Section 5(d), the Administrative Procedure Act’s underutilized declaratory order provision, possesses the power to transform administrative governance. To date, however, agencies have failed to comply with Congress’s command to liberally administer section 5(d)’s “sound discretion”… Read More

Keywords:
declaratory order, rule of law, economic growth, APA originalism, administrative law, civil procedure

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The Intellectual Origins of the Modern International Tax Regime: Edwin R. A. Seligman, Economic Allegiance, and the League of Nations’ 1923 Report

5 Journal of Law & Political Economy 995 (2025)

By Ajay K. Mehrotra Stanford Clinton Sr. and Zylpha Kilbride Clinton Research Professor of Law

In March 1923, a group of prominent political economists and tax law experts gathered in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss the post-World War I framework for a new international tax regime. Commissioned by the League of Nations, these experts produced a comprehensive … Read More

Keywords:
international taxation, fiscal history, interwar period, global capitalism, League of Nations, U.S. History, tax policy, international tax law, history of economic thought, law & political economy, International law-history/sources/theory, legal history, tax law, intellectual history, law and economics, law and society