Federal Preemption ― States' Powers, National Interests

Debates over federal preemption pit consumer advocates, plaintiff's attorneys, and state officials worried about federal regulators interfering with states' powers to police corporate misconduct against corporations and federal agencies insisting that preemption is needed to guard against unwarranted state interference with the national economy. Believing that the debate over preemption needs to be informed by an understanding of broad institutional concerns and regulatory detail, as well as the interplay between them, Epstein (law, U. of Chicago) and Greve (director of the Federalism Project at the American Enterprise Institute) bring together practicing lawyers and legal theorists from different sides of the debate in order to develop a picture of the broad scope and detailed nuances of the preemption doctrine and the controversies it generates. The papers discuss the historical evolution of preemption, extant preemption law in such policy arenas as drug regulation, telecommunications, banking and corporate law, environmental policy, and product liability; and overarching questions such as preemption's internal logic, its relationship with federalism, and comparative understandings of the relationship between legal systems of different levels of government in the European Union. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)