Essence

Regulation is of the essence of administrative law, constituting much of the interface between the state and the individual or ‘legal persons’. To a greater or lesser extent, and in a myriad of different ways, citizens, small business, large corporate and even multinational enterprise fall into its domain. As prime machinery of governance, regulation has epitomised the contemporary mixing in administrative law of public with private powers: ‘steering not rowing’. The recent UK process of regulatory reform itself is an archetypal example of domestic administrative law development in a global context.

Regulation wears a distinctly ‘green light’ hue as one of the chief instruments for the achievement of policy objectives. Epitomised today in the rise of ‘the regulatory state’, its day-to-day workings are of the first importance in the functioning economy. As such, regulation is a hot topic of political debate: not least when some ‘disaster’ occurs as with the current credit crunch. The style and substance of regulation connects in turn with competing – shifting – views of the role of the state. According to a recent, highly influential, report to government: