Wiener, Jonathan B.; Alemanno, Alberto --- "Comparing Regulatory Oversight Bodies Across the Atlantic: The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the US and the Impact Assessment Board in the EU" [2010] ELECD 821; in Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, L. Peter (eds), "Comparative Administrative Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Comparative Administrative Law

Editor(s): Rose-Ackerman, Susan; Lindseth, L. Peter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446359

Section: Chapter 19

Section Title: Comparing Regulatory Oversight Bodies Across the Atlantic: The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the US and the Impact Assessment Board in the EU

Author(s): Wiener, Jonathan B.; Alemanno, Alberto

Number of pages: 27

Extract:

19 Comparing regulatory oversight bodies across the
Atlantic: the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs in the US and the Impact Assessment
Board in the EU
Jonathan B. Wiener and Alberto Alemanno


`Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?' asked the Roman poet Juvenal ­ `who will watch the
watchers, who will guard the guardians?'1 As legislative and regulatory processes around
the globe progressively put greater emphasis on impact assessment and accountability,
(Verschuuren and van Gestel 2009, Hahn and Tetlock 2007), we ask: who oversees the
regulators? Although regulation can often be necessary and beneficial, it can also impose
its own costs. As a result, many governments have embraced, or are considering embrac-
ing, regulatory oversight ­ frequently relying on economic analysis as a tool of evalua-
tion. We are especially interested in the emergence over the last four decades of a new
set of institutional actors, the Regulatory Oversight Bodies (ROBs). These bodies tend
to be located in the executive (or sometimes the legislative) branch of government. They
review the flow of new regulations using impact assessment and benefit-cost analysis,
and they sometimes also appraise existing regulations to measure and reduce regulatory
burdens. Through these procedures of regulatory review, ROBs have become an inte-
gral aspect not only of regulatory reform programs in many countries, but also of their
respective administrative systems.
Although most academic attention focuses on the analytical tools used to improve the
quality of legislation, such as regulatory impact assessment (RIA) or benefit-cost analy-
sis, this chapter instead ...