The Regulatory State: Constitutional Implications

This collection of fifteen essays by leading experts in regulation is unique in its focus on the constitutional implications of recent regulatory developments in the UK, the EU, and the US. The chapters reflect current developments and crises which are significant in many areas of public policy, not only regulation. These include the development of governance in place of government in many policy areas, the emergence of networks of public and private actors, the credit crunch, techniques for countering climate change, the implications for fundamental rights of regulatory arrangements and the development of complex accountability mechanisms designed to promote policy objectives.

Constitutional issues discussed in The Regulatory State include regulatory governance, models of economic and social regulation, non-parliamentary rule-making, the UK's devolution arrangements and regulation, the credit crisis, the rationing of common resources, regulation and fundamental rights, the European Competition Network, private law making and European integration, innovative regulator sanctions recently introduced in the UK, the auditing of regulatory reform, and parliamentary oversight and judicial review of regulators. The introductory chapter focuses on testing times for regulation, and the concluding chapter draws ten lessons from the substantive chapters, noting the importance of regulatory diversity, the complexity of networks and relations between regulatory actors and the executive, the new challenges to regulatory habits posed by climate change and the credit crisis, the wider economic and legal context in which regulation takes place and the accountability networks - including judicial review, parliamentary oversight and audit - within which regulation operates.

Dawn Oliver, FBA is Professor of Constitutional Law at UCL. She was editor of Public Law from 1993-2002, a member of the Royal Commission on House of Lords Reform 1999-2000, and a member of the Fabian Society on the Future of the Monarchy 2003. She is President of the Study of Parliament Group. She has written extensively on constitutional reform in the UK. Her publications include Public Service Reform: Issues of accountability and public law, with Gavin Drewry, 1996; Constitutional Reform in the United Kingdom, 2003; Human Rights and the Private Sphere, ed, with Joerg Fedtke, 2007; The Changing Constitution, ed. with Jeffrey Jowell (7th edition 2011).

Tony Prosser is Professor of Public Law at the University of Bristol and Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. He was previously John Millar Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Sheffield and Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. He is the author or editor of eleven books and over 100 academic articles, mainly on regulation in the UK and in Europe. His most recent book is The Regulatory Enterprise (2010) and he has been a member of a major European research project on reflexive governance from 2005-2010.

Professor Richard Rawlings is Professor of Public Law at UCL. He has written widely in the subject, with works including Law and Administration (3rd edn, 2009) and Pressure Through Law (1992) (both with Carol Harlow), and Delineating Wales (2003). Edited volumes include Law, Society and Economy (1997), Law and Administration in Europe (2003) (with Paul Craig), and Devolution, Law-Making and the Constitution (2005) (with Robert Hazell). He is currently Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution.