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Agency Statutory Abnegation In The Deregulatory Playbook, William W. Buzbee
Agency Statutory Abnegation In The Deregulatory Playbook, William W. Buzbee
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
If an agency newly declares that it lacks statutory power previously claimed, how should such a move—what this article calls agency statutory abnegation—be reviewed? Given the array of strategies an agency might use to make a policy change or move the law in a deregulatory direction, why might statutory abnegation be chosen? After all, it is always a perilous and likely doctrinally disadvantageous strategy for agencies. Nonetheless, agencies from time to time have utilized statutory abnegation claims as part of their justification for deregulatory shifts. Actions by agencies during 2017 and 2018, under the administration of President Donald J. Trump, …
Making Self-Regulation More Than Merely Symbolic: The Critical Role Of The Legal Environment, Jodi Short, Michael W. Toffel
Making Self-Regulation More Than Merely Symbolic: The Critical Role Of The Legal Environment, Jodi Short, Michael W. Toffel
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Using data from a sample of U.S. industrial facilities subject to the federal Clean Air Act from 1993 to 2003, this article theorizes and tests the conditions under which organizations’ symbolic commitments to self-regulate are particularly likely to result in improved compliance practices and outcomes. We argue that the legal environment, particularly as it is constructed by the enforcement activities of regulators, significantly influences the likelihood that organizations will effectively implement the self-regulatory commitments they symbolically adopt. We investigate how different enforcement tools can foster or undermine organizations’ normative motivations to self-regulate. We find that organizations are more likely to …