Christopher J. Walker is a professor of law at Michigan Law. His research focuses primarily on administrative law, regulation, and law and policy at the agency level. He teaches Administrative Law, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Litigation, Federal Courts, Legislation and Regulation, and State and Local Government Law.
Professor Walker’s publications have appeared in the California Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, Stanford Law Review, and University of Pennsylvania Law Review, among others. His article Legislating in the Shadows was selected as the recipient of the 2016 American Association of Law Schools Scholarly Papers Competition Award. His book, Constraining Bureaucracy Beyond Judicial Review, is forthcoming with the Cambridge University Press.
Professor Walker brings to his scholarship and to the classroom extensive practical experience of having worked in all three branches of the federal government, as well as in private practice. Prior to joining the Michigan Law faculty, he taught for a decade at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. He worked for several years at a litigation boutique in Washington, D.C., as well as on the Civil Appellate Staff at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented federal agencies in a variety of regulatory contexts. In 2017, he served as an academic fellow on the Senate Judiciary Committee, working on the Gorsuch Supreme Court confirmation as well as on regulatory reform legislation for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). From 2017 to 2021, Professor Walker served on Senators Brown and Portman’s bipartisan judicial advisory commission to help fill 10 federal district court vacancies in Ohio, including as chair in 2018 and 2019.
Outside Michigan Law, Professor Walker serves as one of 40 public members of the Administrative Conference of the United States and as past chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He also is a regular blogger at the Yale Journal on Regulation and the section editor for Jotwell’s Administrative Law Section. In 2022, he received the Federalist Society’s Joseph Story Award.
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How the Times Are a Changing
Ohio Northern Student Chapter
Ohio Northern University402 w main street
ada, OH 45810
Annual Symposium on The Expanding Executive: Power, Policy, and the Constitution
Pennsylvania Student Chapter
University of Pennsylvania Law School3501 Sansom St
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Arthur N. Rupe Debate: Public Servants or Permanent Rulers? The Future of the Civil Service
2025 National Student Symposium
Michigan Law Hutchins Hall625 S State St
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
The State of the Administrative State: DOGE and the Future of Federal Agencies
Milwaukee Lawyers Chapter
The Milwaukee Club706 North Jefferson Street
Milwaukee, WI 53202
How To Interpret The Constitution
Wisconsin Student Chapter
Wisconsin Law School975 Bascom Mall
Madison, WI 53703
Arthur N. Rupe Debate: Public Servants or Permanent Rulers? The Future of the Civil Service
2025 National Student Symposium
Featuring: Prof. John F. Duffy, Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law and Director of...
Arthur N. Rupe Debate: Public Servants or Permanent Rulers? The Future of the Civil Service
2025 National Student Symposium
Featuring: Prof. John F. Duffy, Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law and Director of...
Remedies in Presidential Removal Cases: A Shifting Landscape
The Supreme Court's decision in Collins v. Yellen represented a paradigm shift. Now, in cases...
Remedies in Presidential Removal Cases: A Shifting Landscape
The Supreme Court's decision in Collins v. Yellen represented a paradigm shift. Now, in cases...
Department of Government Efficiency: Opportunities and Challenges (Part I)
President-elect Trump has announced that entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new...

Agency Rulemaking
The nature and scope of administrative rulemaking is a topic for ongoing debate. One of the main functions of administrative agencies is to create regulations....

Administrative Law and the Executive
How does "who the President is" affect administrative agencies? Executive branch agencies (such as the Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, Department of Energy,...

Introduction to Administrative Law
Were agencies anticipated in the Constitution? Where do they fit into the structure of the 3 branches of government? This unit provides a brief overview...