Regulatory impact assessment: current situation and prospects in the German Parliament

Abstract

Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is a standard method of measuring costs of legislation at all levels of governance, in the EU as well as in all Member States. In this paper Professor Dr Ulrich Karpen (University of Hamburg Law School) describes the current methods of RIA on European and Member State levels, the latter namely in Germany. This includes organisations established in particular for RIA work, such as the European High Level Group of Reducing Administrative Burdens (“Stoiber Group”) and the German National Regulatory Control Council. In addition the author describes RIA in the German Parliament, including the Office of Technology Assessment and the Parliamentary Advisory Council of Sustainable Development, both in the Federal Diet and refers to some elements and requirements of “good legislation”.