Nottage, Luke --- "Commercial Regulation" [2006] ELECD 163; in Smits, M. Jan (ed), "Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006)

Book Title: Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law

Editor(s): Smits, M. Jan

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420130

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Commercial Regulation

Author(s): Nottage, Luke

Number of pages: 10

Extract:

12 Commercial regulation*
Luke Nottage


1 Introduction
Until the early 1980s, comparative lawyers tended to be interested in the
mostly doctrinal implications of distinguishing rules and institutions
dedicated to `commercial law' from other aspects of civil or private law.
Especially as states intervened more in economies, some tried to incorporate
these developments into broader notions of `economic law'or `business law'.
Over the 1980s and particularly since the 1990s, however, more analysts
have realized that `hard law' promulgated and enforced by national author-
ities is only one way of regulating commercial behaviour and expectations.
Private and semi-private norms and dispute resolution processes within
states, and growing regional and transnational dimensions even to hard
law, underpin the emergence of `commercial regulation' as a broader
research agenda. An older strand of regulation theory had been built
around the idea that regulators pursue the public interest. A newer strand
acknowledged that they can pursue, instead or in addition, their private
interests. Particularly under the latter approach, the main focus was on how
regulation might be most efficiently generated and applied to achieve pre-
defined goals.
However, some more recent scholarship takes an even broader approach,
questioning also the nature and legitimacy of such goals. This ties into
current debates about `governance' generally, in contemporary industrial-
ized democracies exposed to increasing globalization. A particularly topical
issue has been `corporate governance', namely how incorporated firms
(especially listed companies) can be most effectively and legitimately con-
trolled. Also, if only to make effective comparisons, corporate ...