In Chapter 6, we suggested that, although the conceptual frame around which our map of the regulatory terrain has been constructed transposes relatively easily to the supranational context, the law's contribution to regulation above and beyond the state alters significantly. In this concluding chapter, we offer some brief closing reflections on the conceptual frame for exploring regulation that we have developed throughout this book, and on how that frame may serve to illuminate the law's contribution to regulation. As we stated in the introductory chapter, one of our primary aims in writing this book was to provide a map of the diverse and wide-ranging terrain occupied by the flourishing literature on regulation that would help to orient relative newcomers to this field of intellectual inquiry. Our framework for examining regulatory literature is underpinned by four broad analytical constructs, forming the subject of Chapters 2 to 5: (i) theories of regulation; (ii) instruments and techniques of regulation; (iii) enforcement and compliance with regulation; and (iv) issues of accountability and legitimacy in regulation. Although our conceptual lens is developed in the context of national regulation, where regulatory scholarship has its origins, the analytical framework we construct is not inherently state-centric, as its application to regulation above and beyond the state context in Chapter 6 clearly demonstrates.

The primary aim of this text has been to demonstrate how the conceptual framework that we have used to map the regulatory literature provides a clear guide to a diverse terrain yet is flexible and durable enough to encompass a wide and varied range of scholarship.