Scott, Colin --- "Rethinking Regulatory Governance for the Age of Biotechnology" [2007] ELECD 115; in Somsen, Han (ed), "The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology

Editor(s): Somsen, Han

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845424893

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Rethinking Regulatory Governance for the Age of Biotechnology

Author(s): Scott, Colin

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

2. Rethinking regulatory governance
for the age of biotechnology
Colin Scott

1 INTRODUCTION

The rapid development of biotechnology in the last 30 years, with appli-
cations to human health and reproduction, and to the agricultural, insur-
ance and security sectors, has generated varied policy responses from
governments in the OECD countries. Though often labelled `biotechnology
regulation' the vast bulk of the policy literature is concerned with the con-
struction of only one element of a regulatory regime ­ the normative struc-
ture of principles, standards and rules. Biotechnology regulation, as a field
of public policy, has not yet matured to the point where other elements of
regulatory regimes ­ notably processes for monitoring and mechanisms of
behavioural modification ­ are routinely considered or problematized.
This pattern of neglect of the machinery for implementation of regu-
latory policy is common to the emergence of earlier regulatory regimes ­
for example, occupational health and food safety (Paulus 1974). As with
those earlier stories it creates risks that the norms, elaborated after much
advice and discussion, may not be rendered effective in practice. On the
other hand there is an opportunity to consider an array of mechanisms,
going beyond traditional instruments of command and control, through
which regulatory norms might be made effective. Such an analysis reveals
not only variety in the mechanisms of regulatory implementation, but also
highlights the possibility that norms agreed through state decision-making
processes might be bypassed and even destabilized by alternative mech-
anisms for the generation and application of norms over ...