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Tel: 215.898.7061
Fax: 215.573.2025
Email: deanfitts@law.upenn.edu
Expertise
- Administrative Law
- Election Law
- Legislative Process
- Separation of Powers
Bio
Michael Fitts has made – and is continuing to make – his mark on legal education and scholarship through his support for interdisciplinary research and teaching.
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Michael Fitts has made – and is continuing to make – his mark on legal education and scholarship through his support for interdisciplinary research and teaching. As a scholar and as an administrator, he has crossed traditional boundaries, co-authoring and co-teaching with scholars from other disciplines and establishing new joint programs within the University. Today Penn Law has a strong cross-disciplinary perspective that starts in the Law School classroom and extends to the certificate and joint programs throughout the University, from a joint degree from Wharton to one in Bioethics at the Medical School. He was the impetus behind many of these programs as Chair of the Faculty Appointments Committee, Associate Dean and then Dean. Today he remains the force that continues to expand, refine, and improve this cross-disciplinary approach. Fitts began his career as an Attorney Advisor to the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, which serves as outside Counsel to the President, White House and Cabinet. He then joined the Penn Law faculty, concentrating his scholarship on issues affecting the Federal Government. He has written extensively on questions of administrative law, presidential powers, and separation of powers, often using the tools of political science. As a leader in his field, he has argued for improving the structure of political parties and executive branch decisionmaking. He is a member of the Law and Political Process Study Group of American Political Science Association, the World Affairs Council, and the Committee of Seventy, a community watch-dog group.
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Representative Professional Positions
Penn Law - Dean and Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law (2000 -); Robert G. Fuller, Jr.
Professor of Law (1996-2000); Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (1996-98); Professor (1992-96); Associate Professor (1990-92); Assistant Professor (1985-90)
Visiting Professor - Swarthmore College (Political Science)
Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. - Attorney Advisor (1981-85) The Office of Legal Counsel serves as outside counsel to the President, White House, and Cabinet
Law Clerk to Hon. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., U.S. Circuit Judge, U.S. Court Of Appeals, Third Circuit (1979-81)
Representative Publications
Back to the Future: The Supreme Courts Response to the Changing Goals and Functions of Modern Political Parties, in THE SUPREME COURT AND THE ELECTORAL PROCESS (David Hope ed., 2002).
The Complicated Ingredients of Wisdom and Leadership, 16 HARV. BLACKLETTER L.J. 17 (2000).
The Hazards of Legal Fine Tuning: Confronting the Free Will Problem in Election Law Scholarship, 32 LOY. L. REV. 1121 (1999).
The Legalization of the Modern Presidency: Twenty-Five Years After Watergate, 43 ST. LOUIS U. L.J. 725 (1999).
The Triumph of Timing: 'Raines v. Byrd' and the Modern Supreme Court's Attempts to Control Constitutional Confrontations, 86 GEO. L.J. 351 (1998) (with Devins).
The Paradox of Power in the Modern State: Why a Unitary Centralized Presidency May Not Exhibit Effective or Legitimate Leadership, 144 U. PA. L. REV. 827 (1996).
Book Review, 13 J. POL. ANAL. & MGMT. 811 (1994) (reviewing G. COX & M. MCCUBBINS, LEGISLATIVE LEVIATHAN (1994)).
Ways of Thinking about the Unitary Executive, 15 CARDOZO L. REV. 323 (1993).
Book Review, 12 J. POL. ANAL. & MGMT. 223 (1993) (reviewing B. ACKERMAN, WE THE PEOPLE (1993)).
Book Review, 11 J. POL. ANAL. & MGMT. 332 (1992) (reviewing C. SUNSTEIN, AFTER THE RIGHTS REVOLUTION - RECONCEIVING THE REGULATORY STATE (1993)).
Book Review, 10 CONST. COM. 194 (1992) (reviewing J. FISHKIN, DEMOCRACY AND DELIBERATION (1993)).
Controlling Congress: Presidential Influence in Domestic Fiscal Policy, 80 GEO. L.J. 1737 (1992) (with Inman).
For additional publications, please consult
Current & Recent Research
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