The Wake Forest University Law Review will host its 2012 symposium, “The Asymmetry of Administrative Law: The Lack of Public Participation and the Public Interest” on Friday, March 30, in the Worrell Professional Center.
The symposium, under the guidance of Professor Sidney Shapiro, will focus on a troubling trend in governmental administrative process: a steadying decline in participation by special-interest groups.
The event, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 1312 of the Worrell Professional Center, is free and open to the public.
The 1970s saw a “reformation” of administration, as a more inclusive procedure was designed to allow participation by the public in the form of public interest groups. It was assumed, in short, that the participation of public interest groups would ensure that the administrative process would not tilt in favor of regulated entities.
However, recent research has suggested that this is not in fact that case. Empirical evidence suggests what has long been commonly known to objective observers: such groups simply do not have the resources to effectively participate in all but a few of the current administrative proceedings. It has also been shown that public interest groups are often overwhelmed by the interests of regulated organizations in the administrative process.
This symposium will consider the short and long-term effects of the decline of participation by these groups.
Schedule
9:00 – 9:15: Introductory Remarks
9:15 – 9:50:
- Rena Steinzor: University of Maryland School of Law
- “The Age of Greed and the Sabotage of Regulation”
9:50 – 10:25:
- Edward Rubin: Vanderbilt University Law School
- “Hyperdepoliticization as a Legislative Method”
10:40 – 11:15:
- Richard Murphy: Texas Tech University School of Law
- “Three or Four Suggestions for Strengthening the Public Interest in Rulemaking”
11:15 – 11:50:
- David Arkush: Public Citizen’s Congress Watch
- “Direct Republicanism in the Administrative Process”
11:50 – 1:30:
- Lunch
1:30 – 2:05:
- Sidney Shapiro: Wake Forest University School of Law
- Wendy Wagner: University of Texas School of Law
- Liz Fisher: Corpus Christi College – University of Oxford
- “The Enlightenment of Administrative Constitutionalism: Escaping From Pluralism” (co-authored)
2:05 – 2:40:
- Dorit Reiss: University of California Hastings College of the Law
- “Participation and Impact in Telecommunications (De)Regulation: Whose Voice is Heard?”
2:55 – 3:30:
- Lawrence Baxter: Duke University School of Law
- “Capture Oscillation in Financial Regulation”
