For many in the financial world, the Volcker Rule seems to be an iron fist coming down on banks. The rule, authorized by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, has two major parts: one banning proprietary trading by banking organizations and the other forbidding banking organizations...

The Penn Program on Regulation's risk regulation seminar series showcased leading research on risk and uncertainty during the University of Pennsylvania's fall 2011 academic term. Leading off in September, Geoffrey M. Heal of Columbia Business School on presented the paper, Ambiguity and Climate Policy, which he coauthored with Simon Dietz of London School of ...

Can regulators do anything right these days? That seems to be a question on a lot of people's mind lately. On the one hand, the recent financial crisis and Gulf Coast oil spill, not to mention mine and pipeline explosions and even contaminated eggs, raise questions about whether regulation adequately protects the public. On the other hand...

On his first day as President, Barack Obama announced his administration's "commitment to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government." Since then, the Obama Administration has implemented a major Open Government Initiative to increase transparency, participation, and collaboration across the federal government...

Two prominent scholars spoke at Penn Law recently about the federal government's increasing reliance on private firms to carry out national defense functions. Paul Verkuil, the Chair of the Administrative Conference of the U.S. (ACUS), and Professor Laura Dickinson of Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law both raised cautions about...