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 the 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".
1 The challenge of better regulation by Stephen Weatherill 1
2 Better regulation in Europe by Rick Haythornthwaite 19
3 Better regulation : tension aboard the enterprise by Robert Baldwin 27
4 Are market failure analysis and impact assessment useful? by Peter Andrews 49
5 The standard cost model : when 'better regulation' fights against red tape by Jacopo Torriti 83
6 Better regulation - better enforcement by Anthony Ogus 107
7 The legislative and regulatory reform bill 2006 - a legislative Trojan horse? by Seamus Burns 123
8 Better regulation by abdication? - remarks on parliamentary democracy and governmental law-making by Michael Bohlander 149
9 Is less more? : better regulation and the small enterprise by John Kitching 155
10 The politics of EC regulation by R. Daniel Kelemen and Anand Menon 175
11 The EU better regulation agenda by Elisabetta Olivi 191
12 Regulating working time - beyond subordination? by Jeff Kenner 195
13 Legal options : towards better EC company law regulation by Gerard Hertig and Joseph A. McCahery 219
14 Latest developments in European corporate governance in light of better regulation efforts by Daniela Weber-Rey 247
15 Impact assessment in the EU by Francis Chittenden and Tim Ambler and Deming Xiao 271
16 Inter-institutionalising EU impact assessment by Anne C. M. Meuwese 287
17 Better law-making by Jane Welch 311
18 Law-making risks in EC financial market regulation after the financial services action plan by Niamh Moloney 321
19 The way forward in European securities regulation : regulatory competition or mandatory regulation? by Jennifer Payne 369