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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Eye Of The Beholder: Participation And Impact In Telecommunications (De)Regulation, Dorit Reiss
The Eye Of The Beholder: Participation And Impact In Telecommunications (De)Regulation, Dorit Reiss
Dorit R. Reiss
The California Public Utilities Commission addressed both pricing deregulation and universal service in telecommunications during the last decade. Both decisions had a similar cast of characters, and similarly elaborate processes. In relation to price deregulation, the utilities positions were accepted on every issue addressed; in relation to universal service, consumer organizations’ positions were accepted in about 60% of the issues. This article tells the story of how those decisions were made, and examines the reasons for the difference in impact. The article examines and reject an explanation of capture; accepts in part a focus on the influence of the commissioner …
Relying On Government In Comparison: What Should The United States Learn From Abroad In Relation To Administrative Estoppel?, Dorit R. Reiss
Relying On Government In Comparison: What Should The United States Learn From Abroad In Relation To Administrative Estoppel?, Dorit R. Reiss
Dorit R. Reiss
The United States’ Supreme Court had never upheld a claim of estoppel against the government. A citizen relying on government’s advice does that at her peril: if the government was wrong, if it misrepresented the statute or interpreted it wrongly, it can (by some interpretations, must) go back on its word and the citizen has no recourse. The Supreme Court provided many arguments for that position, but the core of them involves protection of what the Europeans refer to as “the principle of legality”: the executive does not have the ability to waive requirements from primary legislation or deviate from …
The Benefits Of Capture, Dorit R. Reiss
The Benefits Of Capture, Dorit R. Reiss
Dorit R. Reiss
Observers of the administrative state warn against “capture” of administrative agencies and lament its disastrous effects. This article suggests that the term “capture”, applied to a close relationship between industry and regulator, is not useful—by stigmatizing that relationship, judging it as problematic from the start, it hides its potential benefits. The literature on “capture” highlights its negative results—lax enforcement of regulation; weak regulations; illicit benefits going to industry. This picture, however, is incomplete and in substantial tension with another current strand of literature which encourages collaboration between industry and regulator. The collaboration literature draws on the fact that industry input …
The Benefits Of Capture, Dorit Reiss
The Benefits Of Capture, Dorit Reiss
Dorit R. Reiss
Observers of the administrative state warn against “capture” of administrative agencies and lament its disastrous effects. This article suggests that capture has another side: important benefits that should not be underestimated. Capture is a situation in which a regulated industry exerts a substantial amount of influence over the agency in question, leading to industry involvement in creation and enforcement of regulation. Scholars documenting the phenomenon have highlighted a number of negative results – lax enforcement of regulation; weak regulations; illicit benefits going to industry. However, not only is this picture incomplete, it is in substantial tension with another current strand …
No Innocents Here: Using Litigation To Fight Against The Costs Of Universal Service In France, Dorit Reiss
No Innocents Here: Using Litigation To Fight Against The Costs Of Universal Service In France, Dorit Reiss
Dorit R. Reiss
Liberalization of utility sectors may bring the benefits of competition to customers, but it also creates risks of manipulation of the new system by powerful industrial actors. Litigation is one tool available to undermine or delay effective regulation. In 2001 the European Court of Justice declared the French system of funding universal service in telecommunications untreaty, and ordered France to redesign it. The commission and observers understood the case as a triumph of open market over France’s narrow protection of the "national champion" French Télécom. An alternative interpretation that fits the data better describes the story as successful use of …
Account Me In: Agencies In Quest Of Accountability, Dorit R. Reiss
Account Me In: Agencies In Quest Of Accountability, Dorit R. Reiss
Dorit R. Reiss
This articles adds to the literature about accountability by examining the little-studied phenomenon of agencies making efforts—sometimes substantial efforts - to be accountable. It briefly describes how three agencies—the EPA, the FDA and especially the IRS—worked to increase their accountability. It demonstrates that agencies are often not the enemy in the “accountability game”. In today’s world agencies, contrary to the stereotype, often buy into the language and practice of accountability. It addresses three arguments for this behavior: a rational choice argument based on comparison of the costs of non-accountability with the benefits of accountability; a power of ideas argument showing …