Category Archives: All Articles

Who is a refugee? Regulatory approaches.

When regulating the domain of asylum, it is advisable to build on existing international criteria or to make use of specific regional instruments. We examine these in the first part of this article (I.) Furthermore, we present here some national regulations with different degrees of complexity that can serve as reference (II.). Moreover, we highlight some particular provisions that might be of interest to regulators (III.). Finally, we analyse in more detail the proposal of the European Commission for a “Qualification Regulation” (IV.). Continue reading Who is a refugee? Regulatory approaches. →

Better than bilateral trade agreements: unilateral recognition of approvals / certificates and approval / certification hubs

This article analyses the regulatory tool “unilateral recognition of foreign product or service approvals or certificates”. This tool might in the future play a crucial role in favour of international trade. Furthermore, this article shows how jurisdictions, by applying extremely stringent approval or certification criteria on an optional basis, could become approval / certification hubs, to the benefit of many other jurisdictions and their own. Continue reading Better than bilateral trade agreements: unilateral recognition of approvals / certificates and approval / certification hubs →

Analysing legislation

The Handbook “How to regulate?” has been developed to train law-makers in administrations and parliaments. But it can also be used as analytical tool. One of the author’s readers, François Mestre, analysed a regulation by applying categories of the Handbook in a slightly modified way.

Reference rules of procedure

In a bilateral contact with a development aid agency we learnt that some governments struggle to find a consensus amongst ministries or departments, and this in particular when regulating. If your government is in such a situation, you might wish to check whether the establishment or the amendment of rules of procedure could help. We recommend as a reference the Rules of Procedure of the Czech Republic and the supplementing rules for the Government’s Legislative Council available here.

Liability as regulatory tool

Establishing a legal basis for liability claims or modifying an existing one can deter economic operators or other natural or legal persons from unwished behaviours. To use this instrument, it is necessary to analyse the tort law regime of the respective jurisdiction and to complement or correct it so as to ensure that the unwished behaviour is covered. The following check-list of relevant issues might help regulators in this task. The check-list reflects various tort law traditions. This means, on the other hand, that some of the issues listed below are not relevant in all jurisdictions. Continue reading Liability as regulatory tool →