TY - JOUR
T1 - How statutory duties shape the decision making of an economic regulator: Insights from the energy regulatory community, past and present
AU - Harker, Michael
AU - Reader, David
N1 - Early title: Statutory duties and shaping the decision-making of an economic regulator: insights from the energy regulation community past and present
Funding information: This research was supported by the UK Energy Research Centre's EPSRC grant on Equity and Justice in Energy Markets (Grant Number: EP/L024756/1).
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - This article is concerned with how statutory duties structure regulatory decisions. Rather than focusing on the role of the courts, we explore statutory interpretation by a regulator as a quasi-autonomous exercise, with external influences and internal norms and customs. To investigate this further, we conducted a series of semi-structured elite interviews with senior members of the energy ‘regulatory community’, past and present. Energy regulation has been selected as a case study due to the controversies in recent years over the legitimate limits of economic regulation, as successive governments have imposed broader public interest goals on the regulator, resulting in a proliferation of statutory objectives. This increased complexity has arguably obscured the appropriate contours and rationales of economic regulation. Nevertheless, it is unrealistic to completely separate regulatory policy and politics.
AB - This article is concerned with how statutory duties structure regulatory decisions. Rather than focusing on the role of the courts, we explore statutory interpretation by a regulator as a quasi-autonomous exercise, with external influences and internal norms and customs. To investigate this further, we conducted a series of semi-structured elite interviews with senior members of the energy ‘regulatory community’, past and present. Energy regulation has been selected as a case study due to the controversies in recent years over the legitimate limits of economic regulation, as successive governments have imposed broader public interest goals on the regulator, resulting in a proliferation of statutory objectives. This increased complexity has arguably obscured the appropriate contours and rationales of economic regulation. Nevertheless, it is unrealistic to completely separate regulatory policy and politics.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123851805&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/jols.12339
DO - 10.1111/jols.12339
M3 - Article
VL - 49
SP - 118
EP - 150
JO - Journal of Law and Society
JF - Journal of Law and Society
SN - 0263-323X
IS - 1
ER -