In The Superior Court For The State Of Alaska Third Judicial District The State Of Alaska On Its Own Behalf And As Public Trustee And As Parens Patriae For The Citizens Of The State Plaintiff Vs Exxon Corporation Exxon Pipeline Company Exxon Shipping Company Alyeska Pipeline Service Company Amerada Hess Pipeline Corporation Arco Pipe Line Company Bp Alaska Pipelines Inc Mobil Alaska Pipeline Company Phillips Alaska Pipeline Corporation Unocal Pipeline Company Defendants

Author : Sean Farhang
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400836786
Total Pages : 321 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (8 download)

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Download or read book The Litigation State written by Sean Farhang and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-08-02 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of the 1.65 million lawsuits enforcing federal laws over the past decade, 3 percent were prosecuted by the federal government, while 97 percent were litigated by private parties. When and why did private plaintiff-driven litigation become a dominant model for enforcing federal regulation? The Litigation State shows how government legislation created the nation's reliance upon private litigation, and investigates why Congress would choose to mobilize, through statutory design, private lawsuits to implement federal statutes. Sean Farhang argues that Congress deliberately cultivates such private lawsuits partly as a means of enforcing its will over the resistance of opposing presidents. Farhang reveals that private lawsuits, functioning as an enforcement resource, are a profoundly important component of American state capacity. He demonstrates how the distinctive institutional structure of the American state--particularly conflict between Congress and the president over control of the bureaucracy--encourages Congress to incentivize private lawsuits. Congress thereby achieves regulatory aims through a decentralized army of private lawyers, rather than by well-staffed bureaucracies under the president's influence. The historical development of ideological polarization between Congress and the president since the late 1960s has been a powerful cause of the explosion of private lawsuits enforcing federal law over the same period. Using data from many policy areas spanning the twentieth century, and historical analysis focused on civil rights, The Litigation State investigates how American political institutions shape the strategic design of legislation to mobilize private lawsuits for policy implementation.