Wendy E Wagner

Wendy E Wagner

  • Richard Dale Endowed Chair in Law

Faculty Profile: Wendy E Wagner

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Biography

Professor Wagner is a leading authority on the use of science by environmental policy-makers. She received a Masters of Environmental Studies and her law degree, both from Yale, where she was Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal and Managing Editor of the Yale Journal of Regulation. Before entering teaching, she practiced for four years, first as an Honors Attorney in the Enforcement Division of the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division, and then as Pollution Control Coordinator with the Department of Agriculture's Office of the General Counsel. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Texas, Professor Wagner taught at Case Western Law School and was a visiting professor at Columbia and Vanderbilt Law Schools.

Prof. Wagner’s research focuses on the intersection of law and science, with particular attention to environmental policy. Among her publications, “Bending Science: How Special Interests Corrupt Public Health Research,” a 2009 book Wagner co-authored with UT colleague, Tom McGarity, received the Hamilton Grand Prize for the best book published at UT in 2009. "Dynamic Rulemaking" (with Bill West, Tom McGarity, and Lisa Peters) was awarded the 2018 American Bar Association Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law. Several other articles ("The Science Charade in Toxic Risk Regulation”, "Equal Treatment for Regulatory Science" (co-authored with David Michaels), and “Misunderstanding Models” (co-authored with Pasky Pascual and Liz Fisher)) were chosen as one of the best environmental law articles of the year and reprinted in the Land Use and Environmental Law Review. Two other articles (“Information Capture and Filter Failure” and “Competition-based Regulation”) were selected for publication in the ELI-Vanderbilt Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review as among the top articles of the year.

Prof. Wagner has served on several National Academies of Science Committees, the Bipartisan Policy Center Committee on Regulatory Science, and served as a consultant to the Administrative Conference of the U.S. (ACUS) on a project on the agencies’ use of science. Wagner has also served on the governing councils of the ABA Administrative Law Section, the National Conference of Scientists and Lawyers (AAAS-ABA Committee), and the Society for Risk Analysis. Wagner is a Member Scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform.

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Courses for Spring 2024

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Professional Activities

2023

May 2023

Presenter

Vanderbilt and Tilburg Conference on Use of Science in the Courts

April 2023

Panelist

Harvard Kennedy School Conference on Risk and Uncertainty in the United States and Brazil

April 2023

Presenter

Faculty Colloquium, University of Colorado

2022

Aug. 2022

Panelist

National Academies of Sciences Workshop on Toxic Substances and Children’s Health

July 2022

Panelist

Law and Society Annual Conference

June 2022

Presenter

Tilburg Law School, Netherlands Conference on Courts and Science

June 2022

Presenter

Depaul Clifford Symposium on Corporate Accountability and Tort Law

April 2022

Panelist

Vanderbilt Workshop on the draft “Networks, Platforms, and. Utilities” casebook

Vanderbilt Workshop on the draft “Networks, Platforms, and. Utilities” casebook

March 2022

Commentator

Villanova Symposium on Ed Cheng’s Novel Proposal for a new Admissibility Test for Scientific Evidence

Feb. 2022

Panelist

Knight Institute on Government Lies and the First Amendment

2021

December 1, 2021

Testimony

House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, Judiciary Committee

“The Administrative Procedure Act at 75: Ensuring the Rulemaking Process is Transparent, Accountable, and Effective”

June 2021

Presenter

Conference on Science in the Courts organized jointly by Vanderbilt and Tilburg University in the Netherlands

2020

Dec 2020

Panelist

Toxic Free Future for Our Children

2019

June 10, 2019

Administrative Law New Scholarship Roundtable

University of Wisconsin School of Law

April 11, 2019

Environmental Law Seminar Series

UCLA Law School

April 2, 2019

Law and Economics Workshop

University of Bonn, Germany

February 21, 2019

Duke Law Journal Symposium on Deregulation

Duke Law School

February 21, 2019

Faculty Colloquia

University of Virginia School of Law

2018

March 8, 2018

Invitational workshop on empirical research on administrative law

University of Wisconsin

2017

December 15, 2017

Conference on “Industry Influence in Financial Regulation”

Harvard University, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies

March 17, 2017

Conference on Science and Evidence

Columbia University

March 3, 2017

Faculty Colloquia

Northwestern Law School

Winter 2017

Panel on Science and Environmental Law

Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference;

February 9, 2017

Seminar on Interest Groups

Vanderbilt Law School

Winter 2017

Faculty Colloquia

Cornell Law School

2016

Fall 2016

Conference on Tort Law and Innovation

Heidelberg University, Germany

Spring 2016

Conference on Public Participation in Administrative Law

University of Paris Law School Pantheon-Sorbonne

Spring 2016

Faculty Colloquia

University of Minnesota School of Law