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Full-Text Articles in Law

Do Citizens Care About Federalism? An Experimental Test, Robert Mikos, Cindy D. Kam Nov 2007

Do Citizens Care About Federalism? An Experimental Test, Robert Mikos, Cindy D. Kam

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The ongoing debate over the political safeguards of federalism has essentially ignored the role that citizens might play in restraining federal power. Scholars have assumed that citizens care only about policy outcomes and will invariably support congressional legislation that satisfies their substantive policy preferences, no matter the cost to state powers. Scholars thus typically turn to institutions-the courts or institutional features of the political process-to cabin congressional authority. We argue that ignoring citizens is a mistake. We propose a new theory of the political safeguards of federalism in which citizens help to safeguard state authority. We also test our theory …


Allocating Responsibility For The Failure Of Global Warming Policies, W. Kip Viscusi, Joni Hersch Jun 2007

Allocating Responsibility For The Failure Of Global Warming Policies, W. Kip Viscusi, Joni Hersch

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

A recent series of climate change lawsuits has sought to mimic the "regulation through litigation" approach of the claims brought by the states against cigarette manufacturers. What is distinctive about the cigarette cases relative to conventional tort claims is that they were not brought on behalf of individual smokers, but rather sought to recoup the Medicaid-related costs of smoking. A parallel climate change litigation approach seeks payments from public utilities, energy producers, and other parties responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to reflect the long-term societal damages that the plaintiffs claim will be caused by this pollution. While environmental litigation of …