On the Intersection Between Tort Law and Regulatory Law — A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

It has been said that “regulatory law” is a vague and imprecise term encompassing various instruments of control and constraint.1 It has also been loosely defined as “any system of rules intended to govern the behaviour of its subjects”.2 In this definition, administrative law and criminal law can both be part of an overarching regulatory framework.3 Moreover, strictly speaking even private law can be part of a regulatory framework if it is used by the relevant legislative body as a means of meeting regulatory policy aims. In a more concrete and strict sense, regulatory law is said to be “a distinctive set of techniques used by states to control the operations of markets”.4 In this more narrow sense, regulation is traditionally associated with public law — administrative and/or criminal — and is considered to be the domain of government agencies vested with public law powers.5 As a result, it seems that most lawyers tend to consider regulatory law to be a body of law outside the private law domain and setting rules or standards of conduct in various social situations ranging from occupational health regulation to environmental standards and competition law. Most contributions to this book work from this assumption.6