Administrative Law Commons^™

Is There A Possible Role For Regulatory Enforcement In The Effort To Value, Protect, And Restore Ecosystem Services?, David Markell

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Swallows As It Might Have Been: Regulations Revising Case Law, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

This is the second of two reports on the Swallozvs Holding decision. 1 In that case, the Tax Court, over three dissenting opinions, invalidated a timing rule contained in a Treasury regulation under IRC section 882. That timing rule provided that some foreign corporations could not claim otherwise available deductions if their returns for the tax year were filed outside an 18-month grace period. The majority and the dissenters clashed over which line of authority – Chevron 2 or the pre-Chevron tax-specific line of decisions typified by National Muffier3 – provides the governing standard for evaluating the validity of …

Swallows Holding As It Is: The Distortion Of National Muffler, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

I like big ideas. The opportunity to work with them, and hopefully to add to them, is one of the joys of academic life. But perspective also is required. Not everything genuinely presents "macro" issues. As Freud supposedly said, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

In Swallows Holding Ltd. v. Commissioner, the Tax Court, over three dissenting opinions, invalidated a return-filing timing rule in a Treasury regulation under section 882 of the !RC. It is clear that what drove the majority opinion was the perception that the timing rule was contrary to many previous cases interpreting the statute. As …

What's Old Is New: The Problem With New Source Review, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The Real Problem With New Source Review, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

Editors’ Summary: When the CAA was amended in 1977, the U.S. Congress imposed pollution control requirements on new stationary sources of air pollution, called new source review (NSR), but exempted existing facilities from such requirements. By creating a more favorable regulatory environment for existing facilities than for new ones, “grandfathering” creates an incentive to keep old facilities up and running. Moreover, as a command-and control program, requiring capital expenditures for pollution control equipment makes the capital sluggishness problem worse. Combined with often confusing EPA policies and a changing political environment, NSR has resulted in a running battle between the regulated …

"Slack" In The Administrative State And Its Implications For Governance: The Issue Of Accountability, David Markell

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

On The Role Of Cost-Benefit Analysis In Environmental Law: A Book Review Of Frank Ackerman And Lisa Heinzerling's Priceless: On Knowing The Price Of Everything And The Value Of Nothing, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

Legal scholarship on the role of cost-benefit analysis in environmental law is often stimulating, but does not seem to be changing anybody's mind. The entrenchment of a camp of detractors and a camp of advocates of cost-benefit analysis parallels the impasse that has stymied environmental law for over a decade. Professors Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling have coauthored a book that captures most of the arguments from the detractor side, and they have done so skillfully and powerfully. However, this Review criticizes the book's contribution to perpetuating this intellectual stalemate. The book does this by focusing on an environmental theory …

The Friendship Of The People: Citizen Participation In Environmental Enforcement, Mark Seidenfeld, Janna Satz Nugent

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Further Thoughts On Kanter And Ballard, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

On December 7, 2004, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the consolidated Kanter and Ballard cases. The Tax Court had substantially upheld the IRS’s determinations of large deficiencies and fraud penalties against several taxpayers. The taxpayers argued in part that the Tax Court's application of its Rule 183 violated both due process and applicable statutes. I disagreed with those arguments then, and I continue to do so now. On appeal, the taxpayers' challenges to Rule 183 were rejected by the Fifth, Seventh, and Eleventh Circuits. The decisions of those circuits are sound and should be affirmed.

Both an …

Administrability-Based Tax Simplification, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

The Boyd School of Law is a vibrant place, and our trajectory continues to move strongly in the right direction. One of the things that has been so important to us is the excellent support we have received from so many in and around Nevada. An example of that support brings us together tonight. The Wiegand Foundation has endowed a professorship at the Law School to support the study of tax law. I am fortunate to be the current holder of that professorship. This address is the first formal event memorializing the Wiegand Foundation’s support for scholarship and for Law …

Fairness Versus Efficiency In Environmental Law, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

Like many other areas of law, the development of environmental law has been strongly influenced by notions of fairness. This should not be surprising, since environmental law has been developed by lawyers, who are self-selected to be fairness-oriented and trained to think in terms of fairness. While large environmental gains have been achieved in the thirtyyear history of environmental law, progress seems to have reached a plateau. Partisanship has poisoned the debate on how best to proceed in making further environmental progress. I attribute the failings and the current stalemate in environmental law to our obsession with fairness. Fairness-thinking has …

The 1998 Act And The Resources Link Between Tax Compliance And Tax Simplification, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Tax compliance sometimes is thought of as purely a matter of administration. But there are important connections between substance and procedure.' Both affect compliance. This article explores how simplification of the substantive tax law can improve compliance. The particular emphasis is on how simplification can liberate human and material resources for the IRS without which otherwise well conceived efforts to improve compliance are likely ultimately to fail.

The Canon That Tax Penalties Should Be Strictly Construed, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Employer Tax Liability For Employees' Tips: Fior D'Italia, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Given Nevada's heavy concentration of businesses in which employees are tipped, lawyers here may be more than usually interested in a recent decision by the United States Supreme Court. On June 17, 2002, the Court decided United States v. Fior D'ltalia, Inc. By 6 to 3, the Court held that the IRS may use an “aggregate estimation” method to determine employers’ liability for Social Security (FICA) taxes imposed on their employees’ tip income. The decision is an important development in a controversy of long duration, but it is not the end of that controversy. This article …

After Craft: Implementation Issues, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

Scientists often observe that answering one question about the world or universe causes many new questions to arise. Chess players understand that to win material in the opening or middle game is empty without playing the end game properly. Military commanders and their civilian superiors know that winning a battle is not an end in itself. They must then address what do with their victory, how to turn it to useful result. Having to confront these second-generation or follow-up problems clearly beats the alternatives (remaining ignorant or losing the game or battle), but initial success ushers in not immediate repose …

Aljs In State-Local Tax Cases: To Whom Is Deference Due?, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

This installment of the column reports on an interesting recent Nevada sales tax case, State Dep’t of Taxation v. Masco Builder Cabinet Group. The case involved two issues: (1) whether the Department of Taxation gave appropriate deference to the findings and conclusions of the administrative law judge who had originally heard the case, and (2) whether the principle of equitable tolling applied to extend the statute of limitations period for the taxpayer’s refund claims. The taxpayer, represented by attorney Brett Whipple, prevailed in the Nevada Supreme Court on both issues.

The first part below develops the facts of Masco …

Should Ambiguous Revenue Laws Be Interpreted In Favor Of Taxpayers?, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

There was a time when courts construed, or said that they construed, ambiguous federal tax statutes in favor of taxpayers. That time is long past. Or is it? This article examines whether, because of a recent Supreme Court case, the pro-taxpayer constructional preference may be resuscitated, and whether it should be.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly In Post-Drye Tax Lien Analysis, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Cognitive Loafing, Social Conformity, And Judicial Review Of Agency Rulemaking, Mark Seidenfeld

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

A Game-Theoretic Approach To Regulatory Negotiation And A Framework For Empirical Analysis, Shi-Ling Hsu

Scholarly Publications

For at least two decades, federal agencies have departed from their traditional role as top-down regulators, and have engaged regulated parties in negotiations regarding matters that were previously either handed down as edict or resolved in quasi-judicial agency proceedings. It is no accident that the increase in agency use of more conciliatory negotiation-oriented strategies coincides with a steady increase in skepticism regarding the effectiveness of regulation at the federal level and demands for less federal control and more state and local control. In this setting, federal agencies have become more inclusive and less adversarial towards regulated parties and other stakeholders, …

Discovery In Summary Assessment Proceedings, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

When the collection of tax could be imperiled by going through the usual deficiency procedures, the IRS may make a jeopardy assessment or a termination assessment (hereinafter sometimes called “summary assessment”) and proceed immediately to collection. To prevent the misuse of this power, section 7429 provides affected taxpayers expedited administrative and judicial review. The IRS has made tens of thousands of jeopardy and termination assessments over the years, and there are hundreds of court decisions in litigated section 7429 cases.

The unique nature of jeopardy and termination assessments makes section 7429 proceedings very different from typical tax litigation. This article …

The Psychology Of Accountability And Political Review Of Agency Rules, Mark Seidenfeld

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The Challenge Of Teaching Administrative Law, Mark Seidenfeld

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

A Table Of Requirements For Administrative Rulemaking, Mark Seidenfeld

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Unfinished Business On The Taxpayer Rights Agenda: Achieving Fairness In Transferee Liability Cases, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

The taxpayer rights movement has been a driving force of tax legislation and administration for over a decade. It has produced the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBOR) in 1988, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights 2 (TBOR2) in 1996, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights 3 (TBOR3) in 1998, lesser statutory initiatives, and an array of important administrative changes by the Service. While the future of the movement can be debated, it is clear that, for now, it remains a force to be reckoned with in tax policy.

This article advances a proposal to extend and complete one thrust of the taxpayer …

An Apology For Administrative Law In A Contracting State, Mark Seidenfeld

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The False Promise Of The "New" Nondelegation Doctrine, Mark Seidenfeld, Jim Rossi

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Empowering Stakeholders: Limits On Collaboration As The Basis For Flexible Regulation, Mark Seidenfeld

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Bending The Rules: Flexible Regulation And Constraints On Agency, Mark Seidenfeld

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

The Phoenix And The Perils Of The Second Best: Why Heightened Appellate Deference To Tax Court Decisions Is Undesirable, Steve R. Johnson

Scholarly Publications

In our judicial structure, both courts of general jurisdiction and specialized courts are empowered to adjudicate federal income tax controversies. A proper relationship among those courts has proved difficult to forge and maintain. Absent an enduring intellectual and political consensus, institutional arrangements have been subject to recurring question and challenge.

This Article has four parts. Part I is foundational. It describes the current structure for the litigation of federal tax controversies. Part II discusses the enduring attractiveness to many of enlarging the role of specialist courts in the federal tax adjudication system. It sketches proposals for a national court of …