In a conversation with The Regulatory Review, Matthew J. Sanders, an expert in environmental law and policy, reflects on his career, comments on changes in the administrative law landscape, and highlights the importance of an often-overlooked doctrine in administrative law.

Sanders offers insights into current challenges facing administrative law and proposed reforms aimed at promoting clarity, consistency, and fairness in the field. Observing “shifting priorities and relationships with our environment” that have contributed to climate change, he calls on the federal government to modernize its regulatory approach and discusses potential paths forward. In doing so, Sanders emphasizes the need for dynamism and adaptability among regulators and in legal training.

After delving into the broader importance of procedural rules and doctrines in administrative law, Sanders calls attention to a “little-known but highly consequential” administrative-remand rule, which he argues looms as an “appellate gatekeeper” in cases that have been remanded from district courts to federal agencies. In practice, Sanders explains, the rule prevents non-agency parties from appealing a district court’s remand of an agency decision and, in turn, plays a pivotal role in the development of administrative law. He comments on the application of the administrative-remand rule, drawing from his scholarship and professional experience as a litigator.