Student and Professorial Causes of Action Against Non-University Actors
39 Pages Posted: 21 Jun 2012 Last revised: 26 Jun 2012
Date Written: June 21, 2012
Abstract
While courts have increasingly looked to contract law to vindicate the rights of students against universities and colleges, traditional contract law sometimes provides inadequate protections in situations where rights are adversely affected by third-party action.
The rise of administrative oversight by the Department of Education and by other third-party governmental actors limits the universe of contracts that can be formed and is constantly changing the student-university relationship. This oversight is so pervasive that adverse administrative decisions of even private universities could possibly be characterized as state action or agency action for the purposes of a direct constitutional lawsuit or suit under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Rather than solely focusing on state law contract suits against universities, students, professors, and rights advocates should look to these and other novel remedies to fill in the gaps of rights vindication where state contract law is otherwise inadequate.
Keywords: Administrative law, higher education, constitutional law, due process, contract law
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