301150 Risk-based Regulation: Current Debates in Regulatory Theory (MA: Rechts- und Regulierungssoziologie) (S) (WiSe 2021/2022)

From the 1930's on, the concept of market failure should help to distinguish when regulation was necessary and when it was superfluous. Concepts like regulatory budgets or the application of cost benefit analysis helped to control -- and delegitimize -- the political eagerness to intervene. In the 1990 risk assessments complemented (and sometimes substituted) this decision strategy and in this seminar "risk based regulation" is presented as a way to contain and direct political interventions.

After (i) a short historical overview over regulation and concepts of priority setting, the seminar looks (ii) at the conceptual ideas behind risk based regulation (e.g. to prioritize regulations and legitimize non-interventions (see Black and Baldwin 2012)). (iii) The focus is on empirical studies on risk based regulation in a wide range of regulatory regimes, from higher education to flooding. (iv) The empirical focus allows us to introduce also a comparative perspective and study in detail, how risk based regulation is shaped by institutional framework conditions (mainly legal, but also political). We discuss studies from 4 European countries all obliged by the EU to introduce risk based regulation but all interpreting this instrumental approach in accordance to their institutional arrangements.

The seminar introduces into a recently developed theoretical body of regulatory literature and schools student in a comparative perspective, its pitfalls and its contributions.

Requirements for participation, required level

Fluency in English

Bibliography

Julia Black & Robert Baldwin (2012) When risk based regulation aims low: Approaches and challenges. Regulation & Governance 6 (1), pp. 2-22