Jim Rossi

Jim Rossi is a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School who specializes in Energy Law and Administrative Law. In March 2019, Rossi was appointed the first Judge D. L. Lansden Chair in Law. Named in honor of Judge D. L. Lansden, a former Tennessee Supreme Court chief justice, the chair was established at the law school in 2018 through a trust established by his son, Dick L. Lansden Jr., and his wife Martha S. Lansden. Dick L. Lansden Jr. was a partner of the law firm that later became Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP, one of the oldest firms in Tennessee.[1]

Rossi formerly served as the Harry M. Walborsky Professor at Florida State University College of Law (where he taught from 1995 until 2012), and also has taught as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School (2009) and the University of Texas School of Law (2000–01).

Rossi's works address the integration of renewable power into the transmission grid, and the legal framework for balancing reliability concerns with new energy supply resources.[2] His 2019 Cornell Law Review article "Energy Exactions" (coauthored with Vanderbilt Law Professor Chris Serkin)[3] received the 2020 Morrison Prize for the most impactful sustainability-related legal academic article published in North America during the previous year.[4] His writings on energy federalism advocate for clean energy "floors" in the interpretation of federal energy statutes, which would authorize federal agencies to manage interstate energy markets while still allowing a considerable role for state energy supply policies.[5] For example, he has argued that customer net metering credits for residential rooftop solar energy are not capped by federal regulation of wholesale electricity prices under the Federal Power Act.[6] He also has addressed the role of courts in monitoring energy markets,[7] public utility regulation of energy,[8] energy federalism,[9] and "stranded cost" issues with energy transitions.[10]

Rossi also is a recognized administrative law scholar. "Agency Coordination in Shared Regulatory Space" (a 2012 Harvard Law Review article coauthored with Harvard Professor Jody Freeman)[11] inspired a study and policy recommendations on agency coordination adopted in 2012 by the Administrative Conference of the United States.[12] Rossi's 1997 Northwestern University Law Review article "Participation Run Amok" provides a contrarian critique of the growth of mass participation in the administrative state.[13] His other works advance a defense of "reasonableness" review of agency decisions by courts, within a framework of judicial deference to agency policy expertise.[14] His writings devote considerable attention to state constitutions and state administrative law, including legal constraints on state regulation under cooperative federalism programs,[15] "finality" of state and local administrative law judge decisions,[16] and other issues related to state governmental structure.[17]

His books include Regulatory Bargaining and Public Law (Cambridge University Press 2005),[18][19] along with New Frontiers of State Constitutional Law: Dual Enforcement of Norms (Oxford University Press 2010) (with James Gardner) and Energy, Economics and the Environment (Fifth Edition, Foundation Press 2020) (with Joel Eisen, Emily Hammond, David Spence & Hannah Wiseman).[20]

He holds an LL.M. from Yale Law School, a J.D. from the University of Iowa, and a B.S. from the Honors College at Arizona State University.