Fisher, Elizabeth --- "Exploring the legal architecture of transparency" [2014] ELECD 638; in Ala’i, Padideh; Vaughn, G. Robert (eds), "Research Handbook on Transparency" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) 59

Book Title: Research Handbook on Transparency

Editor(s): Ala’i, Padideh; Vaughn, G. Robert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781007938

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Exploring the legal architecture of transparency

Author(s): Fisher, Elizabeth

Number of pages: 21

Abstract/Description:

Discussions about transparency in government abound with architectural metaphors. Making public decision-making transparent is often described as a means of ‘throwing open the door and ‘letting the sunlight in’. In this chapter I move beyond using architecture as a metaphor and analyse how a history of the use of transparency in architecture can tell us much about the complexity of transparency mechanisms in public administration. In particular that history powerfully illustrates two features of transparency. The first is that behind every transparency mechanism are normative assumptions about its purpose and how it will be used. Practice can often be at odds with those assumptions. Second, while transparency is often understood as leading to clarity, in actual fact its operation often requires engagement with the ambiguity inherent in the interrelationships affected by transparency. I illustrate how an appreciation of these two features of transparency can deepen an understanding of how legal mechanisms of transparency operate in public administration through a case study of how the United Kingdom (UK) First Tier General Regulatory Chamber Tribunal (Information Rights) has interpreted Regulation 12(4)(b) of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR 2004). Regulation 12(4)(b) provides an exception to the need for a public authority to respond to a request for environmental information if the request is ‘manifestly unreasonable’.