Daphna Renan, a scholar of administrative governance, will join the Harvard Law School faculty as an assistant professor in July. Renan is currently the Alexander Fellow at the New York University School of Law. Her research examines how institutional structures and legal rules create and constrain power inside the administrative state, and the practical consequences of those dynamics for governance. Her work explores the interplay of administrative procedure and criminal procedure.
“Daphna’s distinguished public service and thoughtful scholarship address the promise and risks that arise when separate government agencies ‘pool’ their authority to tackle pressing issues such as national security and criminal justice,” said Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School. “Her intellectual candor, curiosity, and imagination ensure she will play a vital role in the HLS community and beyond. We are delighted to welcome her to the faculty!”
In “Pooling Powers,” recently published in the “Columbia Law Review,” Renan shows how the executive, by combining legal and other resources initially allocated to different actors, creates joint structures capable of ends that no single agency could otherwise achieve. In other projects, Renan analyzes the limits of a “transactional” Fourth Amendment. A work-in-progress, which will be published in the “Stanford Law Review” next Spring, recasts problems of surveillance as problems of governance and develops an administrative law framework to help address them.
“It is a tremendous privilege to join the HLS faculty,” Renan said. “I’m excited to engage with colleagues and students, and can’t wait to be a part of this extraordinary community.”
Renan’s scholarship is informed by her experience as an executive branch lawyer, most recently in the Office of Legal Counsel and prior to that as counsel to the Deputy Attorney General. She clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Renan received her J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as an articles editor of the Yale Law Journal. She received her B.A., graduating summa cum laude, from Yale College.