New Governance and Legal Regulation: Complementarity, Rivalry or Transformation

Abstract:     
New approaches to regulation have emerged to deal with inadequacies of traditional command and control systems. Such new governance mechanisms are designed to increase flexibility, improve participation, foster experimentation and deliberation, and accommodate complex multi-level systems. In many cases these mechanisms co-exist with conventional forms of regulation. As new forms of governance emerge in arenas regulated by conventional legal processes, a wide range of configurations is possible. The purpose of this paper is to provide a preliminary mapping of such relationships using examples drawn from the European Union and the United States. When the two processes are consciously yoked together in a hybrid form, we might speak of a real transformation in the law. In other cases, the two systems may exist in parallel but not fuse together in a single system. Where both systems co-exist, there are numerous possible configurations and relationships among them. Thus, one might simply be used to launch the other, as when formal law is used to mandate a new approach. Or, they might operate independently yet both may have an effect on the same policy domain. Finally, in some areas one system may take over the field, ether because new governance methods replace traditional law altogether, or because opposition to innovation halts efforts to employ new approaches.

Keywords: New Governance, Regulation, Command and Control

JEL Classifications: K20, K33, K41

Working Paper Series