Chapter 1: Introduction

“Regulation”…a simple term, but one which so quickly posits itself – often with a certain tinge of imposed immediacy – into some format of a conflictual mode. Possibly, some of the more beneficially inclined amongst us do not perceive it in such manner. But the nub is that many look upon regulation as an “interference” of some sort in the activity being regulated. The whole of the activity being regulated, and often also the total environment around it, has to be governed, ruled, altered, controlled, guided, in some way impacted upon, i.e. indeed, regulated.

The reference to immediacy needs to be contemplated. This regulator vis-à-vis, or indeed versus, the regulated (or regulate) scenario, implied in a conflict mode paradigm, has evolved in our times with a methodology which, even if, potentially and beneficially, one might see as moving away from conflict, and into a paradigm of ongoing processor relationship, it is in fact regulation occurring over, or at different, points in time. Hence, rather than just saying “regulation”, we should perhaps be more concerned with the means, or methods, of regulation and over what period. In such a context the means of regulation do not need to be rules, laws, directives, regulations, or even indeed soft law. Regulation can conceptually also be studied in a pure context of incentives, as opposed to sanctions which so often go with most of the conventional rule-like regulation.