School: Notice and Comment

Administrative Law is a very practical class. While it's unlikely you'll ever be faced with the kinds of issues raised in Criminal Law (that is, unless you're a criminal lawyer or a criminal defendant), the agency procedures covered during an admin law course are the foundations of modern government in America. Like it or not, all citizens are subject to countless agency decisions and rule changes, like NHTSA tightening the standards for school buses.

The big advantage people have in the U.S. that the average North Korean "citizen" doesn't have is the ability to see what these agencies are doing (and stop it, in some cases). In the informal rulemaking cases, generally you have a notice and comment period where the public (and powerful special interests) get to chime in. There's one undeniable benefit to big corporations and lobbying groups - they counterbalance that whole "New Deal" alphabet soup very nicely.