Dear Group Members,
I would like to organize a panel on the topic described below. Please let me know if you are interested. Thanks!
Best,
Karen
Karen Hoffman
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Puerto Rico
Río Piedras Campus
San Juan, Puerto Rico 00913
Implementing US Environmental Law, 1970 to the
Present
The
process of turning protest into policy has multiple moments and aspects. This
panel is focused on the making of policies under environmental laws, in the US
between 1970 and the present. The diverse suite of environmental laws that US
lawmakers created in the 1970s reflected a new seriousness about environmental
protection, and a commitment to making the implementation process more
democratic and effective. For example, the requirement of government agencies
to allow public participation and the provision for citizen suits in post-1970
environmental law for the first time allowed members of the public other than
the entities to be regulated to participate in rulemaking and to bring legal
challenges. The panel focuses on what this new commitment to environmental
protection and democracy in policy making looked like in practice, and what
have been its outcomes. Papers are invited that address this topic. Papers may
address any post-1970 environmental law in the US, at any level of government.
Questions that papers address might include:
How
was the law implemented?
What
new participants entered into the process? What did they do? With what effect?
What limits did they encounter, if any? How were those limits constructed?
What
previous participants remained engaged in the process? What did they do and
with what effect? What limits did they encounter, if any? How were those limits
constructed?
What
relationships did environmental advocates and policy makers formed with each
other?
How
were relationships between the private sector entities to be regulated and
policy makers reproduced and/or transformed?
How
did the staff of regulatory agencies negotiate the inherent conflicts they
found in their agencies, and/or between the private sector entities to be
regulated and public-interest advocates?
How
did particular language in the law open up or constrain options in the
implementation?
Were
the regulatory agencies able implement the requirements in the law? If so, how?
If not, what limits did they encounter? How were those limits constructed?
Interested
panelists should submit their abstracts (of no more than 300 words), paper title, keywords, and contact information to Karen Hoffman
(karen...@gmail.com) by Friday, June 27, 2014. Those interested in
participating in the commentator role should express their interest by the same
date.
