Robots: no regulatory race against the machine yet

From autonomous cars, robotised hotel complexes to surgical and companion robots, the technology of robotics have well advanced. However, have the regulatory measures followed with the same pace? We believe that it has not evolved fast enough. At present, only South Korea has adopted a law that specifically governs the sector of robotics whilst other jurisdictions still struggle how to address immense technological advancements and the related challenges from a legal perspective. Continue reading Robots: no regulatory race against the machine yet →

Promoting energy efficiency by regulation

Not only the International Energy Agency highlights the importance of rationalising energy consumption both for economic and environmental reasons. The environmental reasons have been recognised by the international community with the conclusion of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015.

National regulators are therefore called upon to adopt rigorous regulations. To facilitate their work, we briefly enumerate international reference documents. We also present a range of national regulations and regulatory techniques which can serve as a reference. Continue reading Promoting energy efficiency by regulation →

Transplantation of organs and human tissues

The donation and transplantation of human organs, tissues and cells is a complex domain that touches on questions of health, law and ethics. These questions are intrinsically connected. Thus, it demands a stringent regulation by public authorities so as to prevent serious health risks and eventual abuses of the consent given by the donor. Furthermore, the increased demand for organs combined with the globalisation has prompted the phenomena of organ trafficking and “transplant tourism”. These phenomena require additional regulation, ideally at global level. Continue reading Transplantation of organs and human tissues →

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.