Regulatory Essay Competition Winners

Font Size:

The Regulatory Review celebrates winners of innovative essay contest conducted by Penn Law Professor Sophia Lee in her administrative law class.

Font Size:

The Regulatory Review is proud to feature the work of three student authors from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. These essays have been selected as the best essays written on recent U.S. regulations from among the students in Professor Sophia Lee’s Spring 2014 class in administrative law.

To enhance her students’ motivation to hone their writing skills and learn more about federal agency rules and how they are made, Professor Lee divided her class into groups to research a significant agency rule adopted within the last several years. After completing their group research assignments, students worked individually to prepare a concise, clear synthesis of their groups’ selected rules – with the idea, worked out in advance between Professor Lee and the editors of The Regulatory Review, that the best such individual essays would be submitted to The Regulatory Review for editing and publication.

Professor Lee’s students themselves winnowed down the top essays through a crowd-sourcing selection process that ultimately led to the identification of the most highly-rated three essays – each of which we are pleased to feature in this series. We are delighted to present them to our readers (in random order), as well as to offer our congratulations to their authors.


How Did Wyoming Take Back Control of Gray Wolf Protection?

July 7, 2014  |  Eric Stahl

Marking the end of a decade-long fight between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the state of Wyoming, the FWS in 2012 decided to remove Wyoming’s gray wolves from the endangered species list. The FWS decision put the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission in charge of managing the state’s gray wolf population, an outcome that Wyoming officials heralded as a victory for the state and for its wolves.


The Promise and Perils of Gluten-Free Labels

July 8, 2014  |  Andrew Dean

Thanks in part to a rule issued last summer by the FDA, “gluten-free” labels can now be found on a wide range of products. In issuing its new rule for labeling foods gluten-free, the FDA has provided invaluable guidance to those who need to avoid gluten for health reasons. But as the demand for gluten-free foods continues to grow, the FDA’s rules may also be supporting the misguided idea that gluten-free foods are healthier for everyone.


Alcohol Bureau Will Not Revise Labeling Rules

July 9, 2014  |  Doug Helman

It appears that craft beer makers are out of luck when it comes to labeling their products “gluten-free,” even when such producers use a process to remove gluten from some of their specialty beers. In February, the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau decided that it would not update its alcohol labeling regulations to match the Food and Drug Administration’s new guidelines regulating the labeling of gluten-free food products.