The end of the beginning or the beginning of the end?

Abstract

The concept of regulation is multiform, is relevant in different disciplines, it is accompanied by different legal treatment. It is not easy, therefore, to identify a constant content, the basis for dogmatic reflection. Authorities, decisions and interests underlying the regulation are not homogeneous.

It is, perhaps, possible to identify the characteristic feature as a reduced respect for the principle of legality (which can – perhaps – be justifiable for independent authorities, but which certainly poses serious problems when traditional public bodies or agencies have regulatory powers – this is a topic to which North American literature pays greater attention).

The possible explanation may, therefore, be found in the historical affirmation of the authorities and their regulatory powers, in relation to the needs that arose at the end of the 20th century regarding public powers in relation to the economic process.

What has become evident in recent years, however, is that the Executive has significantly extended its scope of intervention in the economy, especially with emergency, derogatory and ad hoc measures.

This expansion of government powers (often influenced by economic and technological power) that operate with little respect for legality (something they have in common with regulation), further complicates the identification of regulatory powers and, perhaps, erodes their space and functions, to the point of raising the question of their possible decline.