Oversight Research Award
The award promotes, acknowledges and heightens the visibility of scholarly papers that examine important oversight issues at the national, state, local, or international levels and that contribute to efforts to improve public policy.
Submissions for the Excellence in Oversight Research Award
A core value of the Levin Center at Wayne Law is to promote constructive research into oversight by legislative bodies. This award is established to promote and recognize such research efforts. To date, only limited research has examined the workings and impact of oversight inquiries or how such inquiries can contribute to effective public policy. When conducted well, with a commitment to finding the facts and bridging political divides, oversight investigations can provide the checks and balances envisioned by the U.S. Constitution, foster cross-party relationships, build public trust in legislatures and improve government programs and public policy.
The award carries a cash prize of $2,500 and an invitation to present the paper at Wayne Law.
Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. The Selection Committee meets yearly in November.
Past Recipients of the Award
The Levin Center at Wayne Law is delighted to announce that the winning paper for 2021 is ‘Oversight Riders‘ by Professor Stack and Professor Vandenbergh both from Vanderbilt Law School. The Committee agreed that the paper offered a compelling, timely, and original thesis on an important appropriations mechanism long overlooked as a way to create personal incentives for executive branch officials to comply with congressional information requests. Published in the Notre Dame Law Review in early 2022, the winning paper was chosen by a committee of oversight scholars who reviewed the excellent candidates for the award.
Kevin Stack writes on administrative law, regulation, separation of powers, presidential powers, European Union administrative law, and the theoretical foundations of public law. His recent work has examined the interpretation of regulations, rulemaking processes, statutory interpretation and theories of regulation. He was recognized with the ABA’s 2013 Annual Scholarship Award for the best published work in administrative law for his Michigan Law Review article, “Interpreting Regulations.” Read full profile.
Michael Vandenbergh is an award-winning teacher and scholar whose research focuses on working with interdisciplinary teams to explore environmental governance, environmental behavior and climate change. His research has developed the concept of private environmental governance and explored how private governance initiatives can address polarization and other barriers to climate change mitigation. Read full profile.
Emily Berman’s scholarship examines the unique separation-of-powers challenges that arise in the constitutional, statutory, and regulatory regimes governing national-security policy. She focuses in particular on ways to impose traditional conceptions of government oversight on law enforcement and intelligence operations. Professor Berman’s work has been published in top journals and her opinion pieces have appeared in JustSecurity, The Atlantic Online, the National Law Journal, Legal Times Online, and CNN.com.
Criteria and Process for Selection
To be selected for the Levin Center Award for Excellence in Oversight Research, a paper must meet the following criteria:
- The submission must include original, timely, publishable scholarly work in the form of an academic article, book chapter, or written product of similar magnitude.
- The submission must be authored by one or more individuals at an educational institution, government agency, public entity, nonprofit organization or similar body.
- The submission must target significant legislative oversight issues at the national, state, local, or international level and may include suggestions to strengthen legislative oversight to improve public policy. Papers should examine the history, theory, mechanics, features, incentives, cross-party elements, operations, outcomes, effectiveness or other aspects of oversight conducted by legislative bodies to investigate, establish facts, and address problems in either the public or private sector.
- If accepted for publication, submission must occur within one academic year of notification of acceptance.
- The submission must not have been previously submitted for consideration.
- The author(s) of the submission must agree to allow the research to be promoted through academic channels, including the Levin Center at Wayne Law’s website and list-serves.
