Professor Jodi Short Wins National Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law

 

A headshot of Professor Jodi Short of UC Law San Francisco

Professor Jodi Short earns a national award for her research exploring how moral values shape government policies.

Faculty Who Lead: Jodi Short

  • Professor Jodi Short wins a national award from the American Constitution Society for her influential article on morality in government decision-making.
  • Her scholarship explores whether values-based decision-making by government agencies can strengthen trust in public institutions.
  • A leading scholar at UC Law San Francisco, Short studies how law and institutions shape governance across public and private sectors.

 

UC Law San Francisco Professor Jodi Short has earned national recognition for her scholarship on the values that guide government decision-making.

She was named the lawyer winner of the American Constitution Society’s (ACS) 2025 Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition for her article, “The Moral Turn in Administrative Law.”

In the piece, Short documents rising calls for government agencies to make policy decisions based on moral reasoning . She notes that while ethical and moral considerations have always existed in administrative law, they are often overshadowed by technical and procedural concerns. Grounding policy debates in shared moral values, she writes, could help rebuild trust and inspire more meaningful public conversations about how government policies are made.

“Policy discourse framed around widely shared moral reference points has the potential to replenish our diminished set of common cultural resources and to anchor shared conversations about what policies government should pursue,” she writes.

The Cudahy Competition honors the late Judge Richard D. Cudahy, known for his thoughtful and influential work in administrative and regulatory law. The selection committee praised Short’s article for reflecting Judge Cudahy’s legacy of insightful scholarship and making a “substantive contribution” to the field.

Earlier this year, Short joined a team of top legal scholars in filing “friend of the court” briefs in two major federal court cases opposing efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Short, who joined UC Law SF in 2012, is the Mary Kay Kane Distinguished Professor of Law. She teaches courses in constitutional law, administrative law, compliance and risk management, and transnational labor regulation. Her research examines how law and institutions shape governance in the public and private sectors, including how government agencies carry out their responsibilities and what motivates companies to comply with environmental regulations and global labor standards.

UC Law SF’s donors have provided support and endowment for Professor Short’s work:

  • Mary Kay Kane Distinguished Professorship (2023–present): Established through a bequest from the late UC Law SF Chancellor & Dean Mary Kay Kane to promote excellence in teaching and scholarship among faculty.
  • UC Law SF Board of Trustees Foundation Award for Scholarship (2019): Recognizing Short’s record of outstanding and influential research.
  • Honorable Roger J. Traynor Chair (2017–2023): Supported her projects on political influence in regulation and strategies for improving labor standards compliance in global supply chains.
  • Bion Gregory Chair in Business Law (2017): Provided funding for her research on global labor standards compliance.
  • Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair (2013–2015): Established through a gift from Lillian Hastings on behalf of her late husband to recognize tenured faculty for outstanding scholarship and promising proposals for future research.