6 - Regulation above and beyond the state

Summary

Overview

The preceding chapters have identified and developed a series of analytical tools and framing devices that assist in mapping the growing field of regulation scholarship. As we made clear in the introductory chapter, our focus has hitherto assumed that regulation takes place within a nation-state. The explosion of interest in, and literature about, globalisation since the early 1990s reflects the changing regulatory landscapes and calls for examination of this assumption. Accordingly, this chapter will explore the degree to which the analytical tools and framing devices used throughout the preceding chapters can be applied to the supranational context, building directly upon the conceptual structure developed throughout the book. Although each field of social science is developing a voluminous literature on globalisation, broadly understood in various different terminologies, we will consciously avoid any attempt to map these terrains, although we occasionally cite some literature by way of brief example. Thus, unlike the earlier chapters, we are not integrating existing literatures into our mapping exercise, and as a result this chapter does not include extracts from selected texts. Rather, this chapter does two things. Firstly, we explore whether theories and techniques of regulation, as well as issues of regulatory enforcement and legitimacy, can be transposed to the supranational context. Secondly, we consider the role of law in regulation above and beyond the state.