Better regulation

The discourse of 'Better regulation' is a hot topic, intimately associated with the drive for cost savings and a more efficient economy. In the UK and in the EU, rule-makers have lately endeavoured to achieve a more satisfactory balance between the demands of proper protection from market failure and inequity on the one hand, and commercial freedom and the potential for innovation on the other. But who is the regulator listening to, and what effect does this have on the regulatory pattern governing the integrating EU market? What is best practice in the matter of regulatory assessment. The essays in this collection explore these and other questions and will foster greater understanding of UK and EU regulation, the accountability issues involved, and problems of enforcement. It is no coincidence that since efforts to construct a Constitution for Europe have stalled the attention of policy-makers, politicians and the business community has turned instead to the quest for Better Regulation - or perhaps, it might be said, a "Better European Union".

Contents:
1. The Challenge of Better Regulation (Stephen Weatherill)
2. Better Regulation in Europe (Rick Haythornthwaite)
3. Better Regulation: Tension aboard the Enterprise (Robert Baldwin)
4. Are Market Failure Analysis and Impact Assessment Useful? (Peter Andrews)
5. The Standard Cost Model: When ‘Better Regulation’
Fights Against Red Tape (Jacopo Torriti)
6. Better Regulation—Better Enforcement (Anthony Ogus)
7. The Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill 2006 — A Legislative Trojan Horse? (Seamus Burns)
8. Better Regulation by Abdication?—Remarks on
Parliamentary Democracy and Governmental Law-making (Michael Bohlander)
9. Is Less More? Better Regulation and the Small Enterprise (John Kitching)
10. The Politics of EC Regulation (R Daniel Kelemen and Anand Menon)
11. The EU Better Regulation Agenda (Elisabetta Olivi)
12. Regulating Working Time - Beyond Subordination? (Jeff Kenner)
13. Legal Options: Towards Better EC Company Law Regulation
(Gérard Hertig and Joseph A McCahery)
14. Latest Developments in European Corporate Governance
in Light of Better Regulation Efforts (Daniela Weber-Rey)
15. Impact Assessment in the EU (Francis Chittenden, Tim Ambler and Deming Xiao)
16. Inter-institutionalising EU Impact Assessment (Anne CM Meuwese)
17. Better Law-making (Jane Welch)
18. Law-making Risks in EC Financial Market Regulation
after the Financial services Action Plan (Niamh Moloney)
19. The Way Forward in European Securities Regulation:
Regulatory Competition or Mandatory Regulation? (Jennifer Payne)
20. Better Regulation and the Role of EU Agencies (Frank Vibert)