Risk Regulation at Risk: Restoring a Pragmatic Approach

Robert L. Glicksman and Sidney A. Shapiro, RISK REGULATION AT RISK: RESTORING A PRAGMATIC BALANCE, Stanford University Press, 2003

Posted: 30 Jan 2003

See all articles by Sidney A. Shapiro

Sidney A. Shapiro

Wake Forest University School of Law

Robert L. Glicksman

George Washington University - Law School

Abstract

Regulation to protect against the risk of harm to the public health and the environment has come under increasing criticism in recent years, particularly from those who employ utilitarian philosophy and support reliance on cost-benefit analysis as a decisionmaking criterion. To date, the defenders of risk regulation have lacked a unifying theory. This book proposes the American tradition of philosophical pragmatism to fill that vacuum. The authors contend that pragmatism offers a better method for conceiving of and implementing risk regulation than the economic paradigm favored by many of its critics. The authors reject the contention that risk regulation, as implemented to date, is excessive and irrational. The pragmatic perspective they employ nevertheless leads them to propose a series of potentially useful reforms to risk regulation.

Keywords: Environmental law, risk regulation, pragmatism

Suggested Citation

Shapiro, Sidney A. and Glicksman, Robert L., Risk Regulation at Risk: Restoring a Pragmatic Approach. Robert L. Glicksman and Sidney A. Shapiro, RISK REGULATION AT RISK: RESTORING A PRAGMATIC BALANCE, Stanford University Press, 2003, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=338120

Sidney A. Shapiro (Contact Author)

Wake Forest University School of Law ( email )

P.O. Box 7206
Winston-Salem, NC 27109
United States
336-758-5430 (Phone)

Robert L. Glicksman

George Washington University - Law School ( email )

2000 H Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20052
United States
202-994-4641 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.gwu.edu/Faculty/profile.aspx?id=16085

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