"This is a pathbreaking contribution to a much neglected area of academic study."—Bridget M. Hutter, London School of Economics "Regulatory Encounters is an extremely impressive book that contains rich, varied, and convincing case studies on an important topic, American 'adversarial legalism.'"—R. Shep Melnick, Boston College

Organizational encounters with risk range from errors and anomalies to outright disasters. In a world of increasing interdependence and technological sophistication, the problem of understanding and managing such risks has grown ever more complex. Organizations and their participants must often reform and reorganise themselves in response to major events and crises, dealing with the paradox of managing the potentially unmanageable. Organizational responses are influenced by many factors, such as the representational capacity of information systems and concerns with legal liability. In this collection, leading experts on risk management from a variety of disciplines address these complex features of organizational encounters with risk. They raise critical questions about how risk can be understood and conceived by organizations, and whether it can be 'managed' in any realistic sense at all. This book is an important reminder that the organisational management of risk involves much more than the cool application of statistical method.

Using a new concept - 'regulatory crisis' - this book examines how major crises may or may not affect regulation. The authors provide a detailed analysis of selected well-known disasters, tracing multiple interwoven sources of influence and competing narratives shaping crises and their impact. Their findings challenge currently influential ideas about 'regulatory failure', 'risk society' and the process of learning from disasters. They argue that interpretations of and responses to disasters and crises are fluid, socially constructed, and open to multiple influences. Official sense-making can be too readily taken at face value. Failure to manage risks may not be central or even necessary for a regulatory crisis to emerge from a disaster; and the impacts for the regulator can take on a life detached from the precipitating disaster or crisis.

Distinguished by a practical focus on how federal administrative agencies make decisions and how political institutions influence and courts review those decisions, with coverage tailored to 1L or upper-level courses on the regulatory state or legislation and regulation. Uses primary source materials drawn from agency rules, adjudicatory orders, and guidance documents to show how lawyers engage agencies. Uses an accessible central example (auto safety) throughout to make the materials cohesive and accessible. Presents legislation with attention to modern developments in the legislative process. Presents statutory interpretation in useful terms, highlighting the “tools” that courts employ as well as the theories that judges and scholars have offered. New to the 4th Edition: Significant New Supreme Court decisions, with detailed Notes, on: textual statutory interpretation (Bostock v. Clayton County) the Major Questions Doctrine (West Virginia v. EPA) and the shifting Chevron framework arbitrary and capricious review (FCC v. Prometheus Radio Project) New Presidential and OIRA documents reshaping regulatory review, including: Executive Order on Modernizing Regulatory Review (Exec. Order 14094) Draft Revisions to Circular A-4 on Regulatory Analysis Updated coverage on scientific analysis in agency decision making New treatment of distributional analysis and consideration of equity in agency decision making Benefits for instructors and students: Tools-based approach that highlights the methods of analysis that agencies, courts, and lawyers utilize Use of an accessible central example as a familiar entry point into a complex legal area Primary source materials—agency documents, including notice-and-comment rules, adjudicatory orders, agency guidance, and more Empirical data, normative/theoretical questions, practical examples

This book transcends current debate on government regulation by lucidly outlining how regulations can be a fruitful combination of persuasion and sanctions. The regulation of business by the United States government is often ineffective despite being more adversarial in tone than in other nations. The authors draw on both empirical studies of regulation from around the world and modern game theory to illustrate innovative solutions to this problem. Their ideas include an argument for the empowerment of private and public interest groups in the regulatory process and a provocative discussion of how the government can support and encourage industry self-regulation.

On the ground floor of government, citizens interact with teachers, medical staff, police officers and other professionals in public service. It is during these encounters that laws, public policies and professional guidelines gain further substance and form. In this insightful book, Peter Hupe brings together expert contributions from scholars across the globe to study the social mechanisms behind these public encounters.