Better Regulation by Stephen Weatherill (ed.)
| Author | Sara‐Louise Khabazian |
| Date | 01 November 2008 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2008.00728_4.x |
| Published date | 01 November 2008 |
obviousupon detailed study’ counts for something ((1992) 37 J. Forensic Sciences
373, 375). Fingerprinting may have a pretty subjective basis ^ and if it makes you
happy you can call it unscienti¢c ^ but given that there are ways of assessing the
reliabilityof ¢ngerprint evaluations, we should not leap to the conclusion that it
should be inadmissible.
Anotherexample comesfrom Beecher-Monas’discussion of social psychology.
There are some nice points here about behavioural law and economics’too ready
resort to the heuristics and biases literature when the cognitive phenomena at
issue are subtle and complex. Beecher-Monas goes on to note that social psychol-
ogy is tenuous to the exte nt that the biological, neuroscienti¢cand ^ though there
is some ambivalence here ^ evolutionary basis of the various heuristics and biases
has not been established.That the research has not yetgone in that direction is an
interesting point, and Beecher-Monas may be right that it should do.There are
whi¡s here, though, of E. O.Wils on’s Consilience (Vintage Books, 1998), and o ne
must surely question whether this sort ofu nifyingand reductivist approach is the
right one to take to all mental phenome na.
Mike Redmay ne
n
Stephen Weatherill (ed.), Better Regulation, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2007, 442
pp, hb d50.00.
Consolidation, simpli¢cation and evaluation are terms commonly associated
with the discourse of better regulation. Some regulation is seen as necessary to
protect against market failure, maximise social welfare or safeguard the environ-
ment. Unduly onerous regulatory burdens may hinder incentives to innovate,
with undesirable economic, social or environmental consequences. The better
regulation agenda is designed to reconcile interests in market protection and
innovation, through consolid ating and simplifyi ng existing regulation, and eval-
uating the likely impact of new regulation.
The objectives of better regulation are now broadly understood. How these
objectives have been pursued and may be achieved in practice remains less well
known.Public and private sectororganisations continue to emphasise the impor-
tance of improvingregulation forenhancing the competitivenessof EU Member
States and companies on global markets. A book devoted to what better regula-
tion is and how it may be achieved is therefore to be welcomed.
Better Regulation derives from a set of papers from a conference held by the
Oxford Institute of European and Comparative Law and law ¢rm Cli¡ord
Chance in March 2006 entitled ‘Regulating the European Market’.The confer-
ence represented a valuable opportuni ty for eminent scholars and regu latory and
industry representatives to discuss developments in the better regulation agenda.
Each paper provides an account of national or international developments in the
n
Law Department,London School of Economics.
Reviews
104 4 r2008 The Author.Journal Compilation r20 08 TheModern Law Review Limited.
(2008) 71(6) 1032^1049
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