Daniel E. Walters

Professor Walters’s research approaches Administrative Law—the law governing the process of lawmaking in administrative agencies—from both an empirical and theoretical perspective, drawing on his interdisciplinary training in Political Science. His work has been published in top law reviews such as the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Michigan Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Southern California Law Review, and the Iowa Law Review, among many others.

Much of Professor Walters’s research work is geared toward testing claims that are made about how administrative law works or should work, for instance by using survey experiments to gauge how ordinary people reason about process and delay, or about judicial review standards that center “common sense.” He also has contributed to theoretical and normative debates about how to square the existence of bureaucracy with democracy, how the administrative state is adapting to the shift to an information society, and about the downstream implications of changes to standards of review of agency action. As part of a team selected by the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), he will be devoting significant attention in the coming years to models of regulatory experimentation. In addition to teaching courses on these subjects, such as Administrative Law and first-year Legislation and Regulation, Professor Walters teaches Energy Law, Climate Change Law, Statutory Interpretation, and Civil Procedure, and occasionally writes on these subjects as well.

Professor Walters is an active contributor to professional organizations and law development. Most recently, he was appointed to serve a three-year term as a Public Member of ACUS, a federal agency that provides guidance to other agencies throughout the Executive Branch about best procedural practices. Professor Walters is currently the Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Section and will be Chair from 2029-2030. He is also involved with the Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law, most recently serving on the Natural Resources Law Teachers Committee.

Professor Walters holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School. In law school he served on the Michigan Law Review and as the Editor-in-Chief of the inaugural issue of the Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law. Professor Walters also holds an M.A. in Politics and International Relations from the University of Southern California and a B.A., summa cum laude, from Northern Illinois University, close to where he grew up. Before joining Texas A&M Law’s faculty, Professor Walters was an Assistant Professor at Penn State Law, a Regulation Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, and a law clerk to the Hon. M. Margaret McKeown on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

When he is not preoccupied with work, Professor Walters enjoys traveling and spending time with his spouse, Alicia, and their two dogs, a miniature dachshund named Wolfgang and a labrador retriever named Louis. He is also an avid golfer, a three-point marksman in basketball (albeit one who can’t really get his own shot anymore), and a proficient rhythm guitarist and music enthusiast.