Risk is a central concept in modern regulatory studies. In Chapter 2, the general idea of ’risk’ is introduced. The chapter helps readers grasp its scientific and practical relevance for regulation. The chapter also offers an overview of the importance of risk in scholarly work and policy-making. The chapter emphasizes the extensive and diverse nature of risk studies across different academic disciplines including ’technical’ quantitative methods and sociological critique. It explains how risk identification, risk assessment, and risk management are conventionally understood and highlights their shortcomings and complexities. Additionally, it discusses the trend of ’riskification’ – the tendency to frame a growing number of issues in the language of risk.

This chapter critically examines various kinds of ‘hybrid’ regulatory instruments, including hybrid and private regulation. It discusses multiple sources of regulatory influence, including various non-state intermediaries, and various strategies that avoid relying exclusively on the regulatory capacities of the state. The chapter closes with a brief overview of various kinds of ‘experimental regulation’, including regulatory sandboxes.

This chapter delves into the concept of legitimacy and introduces the readers to key debates on regulatory legitimacy. The concept of legitimacy has been extensively studied by scholars from various academic disciplines, including political theory, legal theory, political science, sociology and management studies. The resulting body of scholarship has, however, tended to remain in disciplinary siloes, making the study of legitimacy difficult to navigate. Chapter 11 offers first an exploration of different legitimacy claims that justify why individuals recognize an authority and its rules as legitimate. The chapter then moves to regulatory legitimacy.

Chapter 9 explores regulatory compliance, enforcement and certification. It analyses the vital role of enforcement action and how rules aimed at influencing human and institutional behaviour are translated into social reality. It draws attention to the human interaction that takes place during encounters with regulatory enforcement officials and regulators. We discuss how ‘risk-based’ approaches to regulation can be understood and operationalised. It then touches upon the investigatory powers of public regulators, and the nature, purpose and variety of regulatory sanctions. Finally, it examines the role of ‘private’ bodies and other ‘regulatory intermediaries’ in certifying that a regulatee’s activities complies regulatory standards which purport to offer consumers, as primary beneficiaries, ‘assurance’ of the quality of the resulting outputs.

Chapter 10 provides an overview of the role and functions of private enforcement within regulatory regimes and the availability of redress. It draws attention to different ‘models of legal responsibility’ upon which regulatory regimes rely in allocating and distributing legal rights and duties between those who are subject to regulation and those whom regulation is intended to protect (‘regulatory beneficiaries’). This chapter is the most legally focused chapter in the volume, selectively highlighting several features of the institutional and enforcement context in which regulation occurs. Examples are private litigation, collective redress mechanisms, the role of courts as authoritative and final interpreters of the law and ‘alternative’ avenues for redress.

Chapter 12 discusses accountability in regulation. Accountability is part of a family of concepts that relate to the exercise of power and its abuses. It construes the relationship between regulators and regulatees according to principal-agent theory and explains how accountability can be an important mechanism for requiring answerability, ensuring that agents (regulators) do not drift from the interests of regulatees. The chapter explains that accountability consists of four elements: (i) a duty to explain; (ii) exposure to scrutiny; (iii) a potential ‘sanction’ or a consequence of some kind; and (iv) the possibility of being subject to independent review.

There are many different types of regulatory instruments and tools. Chapter 6 classifies and examines regulatory tools according to their underlying technique or ‘modality’ of control or source of influence, examining five such modalities in turn: command, competition, communication, consensus and code (or ‘architecture’). This chapter also considers algorithmic regulation and the role of reputation as a form of regulation.

This chapter offers responses to the question ‘why regulate?’ and ‘why do regulatory regimes emerge in a particular form?’ by examining ‘theories of regulation’. While chapter 1 introduced the readers to the economic justifications of regulation, this chapter delves into the different theories that explain why we need regulation and how public and private actors interact to shape the content of regulation. These theories refer to a set of propositions or hypotheses about why regulation emerges, which actors contribute to that emergence, and typical patterns of interaction between regulatory actors. It discusses theories from several disciplinary approaches, classifying these theories into four kinds: public interest, private interest theories, systems and institutionalist approaches and ‘hybrid’ theories.

This chapter examines ‘Regulatory Policy’ by addressing various questions that arise in considering ‘whether’ and ‘how’ to regulate. Regulatory policy includes a range of methodologies such as cost-benefit analysis and regulatory impact assessment. This chapter focuses on the methodologies used by public regulators. This chapter discusses the methods that help regulators assess who will be impacted by regulation, whether a regulation is effective, and what its costs and benefits will be. The chapter discusses the history of regulatory policy and delves into cost-benefit analysis, regulatory impact assessment, and consultations. The chapter includes a brief analysis of better regulation policies.

The Conclusion provides a very brief recap of the issues discussed in the preceding chapters. It reflects on the larger context of regulatory change, and touches upon contemporary challenges of regulation such as the role of gender, race, sustainability, and future generations in the regulatory process.