In a brief essay, The Administrative Conference and Empirical Research, Richard Pierce (George Washington) describes the various ways the Administrative Conference has contributed to empirical work in administrative law. "One of the many important contributions of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) to the development and understanding of administrative law lies in its critical role in encouraging legal scholars to engage in empirical research."
Pierce points to empirical work evidencing how notice and comment rulemaking systematically favors regulated industries as particularly important. He goes on to identify sources of the bias. "Once we have a clear picture of the nature and magnitude of the systemic bias in favor of regulated firms in the notice and comment rulemaking process it is relatively easy to identify the major sources of the bias. They include: collective action problems, judicial decisions that define an adequate NPR, judicial decisions that define an adequate statement of basis and purpose, and judicial decisions that determine who has standing to obtain judicial review of rules."
Comments