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Vanderbilt University Law School

Administrative law

Energy and Utilities Law

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Nuclear Power, Risk, And Retroactivity, Emily Hammond Jan 2015

Nuclear Power, Risk, And Retroactivity, Emily Hammond

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster presented a familiar scenario from a risk perception standpoint. It combined a classic" dread risk" (radioactivity), a punctuating event (the disaster itself), and resultant stigmatization (involving world wide repercussions for nuclear power). Some nuclear nations curtailed nuclear power generation, and decades-old opposition to nuclear power found a renaissance. In these circumstances, risk theory predicts a regulatory knee-jerk response, potentially resulting in inefficient overregulation. But it also suggests procedural palliatives that conveniently overlap with administrative law values, making room for the engagement of the full spectrum of stakeholders. This Article sketches the U.S. regulatory response to …


Redeeming Judicial Review: The Hard Look Doctrine And Federal Regulatory Efforts To Restructure The Electric Utility Industry, Jim Rossi Jan 1994

Redeeming Judicial Review: The Hard Look Doctrine And Federal Regulatory Efforts To Restructure The Electric Utility Industry, Jim Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Recent policy-effect studies denounce judicial review for its adverse effects on agency decisionmaking. In its strong version, the policy-effect thesis suggests that judicial review has paralized innovative agency decisionmaking. Professor Rossi reacts to policy-effect studies, particularly as they have been used to attack the hard look doctrine in administrative law. He revisits Professor Richard Pierce's policy-effect description of the effects of judicial review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Professor Rossi's survey of recent FERC decisionmaking provides some support for an attenuated version of the policy-effect thesis, but leads him to reject the strong version of the thesis. Much …