Faculty News

Ruhl provides an overview of the National Environmental Policy Act drawing from his years practicing environmental law in this podcast interview with Raimi, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future. Ruhl explains how NEPA lawsuits are especially complex, involving statutes, court opinions and recent regulatory changes that are often at odds, and discusses the implications of a proposed rule change by the Trump administration that could limit the types of litigation that can be pursued under NEPA. A transcript of the interview appears below the audio link. Read More

Viscusi, an economist whose research focuses on fatality risks, found that post-9/11 wars resulted in indirect deaths in the U.S. due to the diversion of war costs from the U.S. economy and the subsequent impact on consumers who had less money to spend on better nutrition, health care, safe housing and safe products. His article, "The Mortality Cost Metric for the Cost of War," appears in the journal Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy. Read More

Provost Research Studios provide up to $4,000 to support the professional development of full-time faculty early in their academic careers. Read More

In a Dec. 9 article published by The Conversation, Skiba and Malone explain why payday lenders have embraced installment loans, based on their recent study that explored the effect that the larger installment loans have on borrowers. Their results suggest that installment loans may create additional financial strain for consumers rather than benefiting them. Read More

Viscusi’s book Pricing Lives and Vandenbergh’s book, Beyond Politics: The Private Governance Response to Climate Change, co-authored with VU professor Jonathan Gilligan, were included in “Reading the Environment: 1969-2019,” an Environmental Forum overview of influential environmental writing by Oliver Houck and G. Tracy Mehan II. Read More

In a book review published in the National Review, Judge Kenneth K. Lee of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals touts Fitzpatrick's book, "The Conservative Case for Class Action Lawsuits," as "a clever, contrarian, and counterintuitive take on class actions that should open the eyes of both conservatives and liberals." Read More

Professor Sitaraman proposes that Congress pass a Congressional Review Act that would enable it to overturn SCOTUS decisions on legislative matters with greater speed and ease in a Nov. 16 essay published in The Atlantic. Read More

Kay, who is associate dean for experiential education, has taught at VLS since 1980 and established the law school's first clinic. The award recognizes her lifetime dedication to criminal justice reform and legal advocacy, which includng successfully challenging Nashville's jail conditions. She was honored on Nov. 14. Read More

In his new book, released this fall by Chicago University Press, Fitzpatrick makes "The Conservative Case for Class Actions," asserting that "They're better than the alternative: regulation by bureaucrats." Read More

Wuerth, Helen Strong Curry Professor of International Law, and Ted Fischer, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Anthropology, lead the GlobalVU intiative, which is funded by the Provost and Vanderbilt's Transinstitutional Programs (TIPS) program. The Global Fellows Program will bring international scholars, authors, artists, politicians and other thought leaders to Vanderbilt. Read More