Legislative Road Research Articles

The Past, Conundrums, and Future of International Cybersecurity Governance

Due to the growing reliance of nations on the Internet, cyber security concerns have become a global concern for the entire international community. After the international community has acquired a consensus on the principles of international cyberspace governance, it stalls due to the delay in obtaining an agreement on the application of international law. The governance of global cyberspace security is currently confronted with challenges such as nations' divergent interests and values and the expansion of international competition into cyberspace. In the future process of establishing an international order in cyberspace, the "dual-track system" of the United Nations should be utilized in its entirety, national collaboration at the regional level should be encouraged, and the legislative road of "multilateralism" should be adhered to.

Effectiveness of child restraint legislation to reduce motor vehicle related serious injuries and fatalities: A national interrupted time series analysis

Children that are unrestrained while travelling in a motor vehicle are more vulnerable to serious injury and death. The greatest levels of crash protection are achieved when children use the most age or size appropriate form of restraint. In this study, we aimed to examine the effectiveness of the introduction of age-appropriate child restraint legislation on serious and fatal injury in five Australian states and territories. For this interrupted time series analysis, we used a segmented regression method to assess the association between the implementation of child-restraint legislation and motor-vehicle related serious injuries and fatalities using data obtained from transport authorities in each jurisdiction. We estimated the change in annual rates after the implementation of legislation with the number of motor-vehicle accidents resulting in fatalities or serious injuries as the outcome, and the total number of injuries (minor, serious and fatal) as an offset in the model. We identified 10882 motor-vehicle related crashes resulting in fatalities (n = 188), serious injuries (n = 1730) and minor injuries (n = 8964). In NSW and VIC, the rate ratio was statistically significant and positive, indicating an increase in the rate of serious injuries and fatalities in the period post-legislation compared to the period prior to legislation. In all other states and territories, we did not find a statistically significant effect of legislation Road safety programs incorporating interventions targeted at increasing awareness of optimal restraint practices, strengthened enforcement and measures to improve the affordability of restraints are needed to support legislation.

Analysis of Sampling Methodologies for Noise Pollution Assessment and the Impact on the Population

Today, noise pollution is an increasing environmental stressor. Noise maps are recognised as the main tool for assessing and managing environmental noise, but their accuracy largely depends on the sampling method used. The sampling methods most commonly used by different researchers (grid, legislative road types and categorisation methods) were analysed and compared using the city of Talca (Chile) as a test case. The results show that the stratification of sound values in road categories has a significantly lower prediction error and a higher capacity for discrimination and prediction than in the legislative road types used by the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications in Chile. Also, the use of one or another method implies significant differences in the assessment of population exposure to noise pollution. Thus, the selection of a suitable method for performing noise maps through measurements is essential to achieve an accurate assessment of the impact of noise pollution on the population.

A Priori Evaluation of Policy Measures Against Alcohol-Impaired Driving: French Case Study

On one hand, drinking and driving is an ever-growing concern for decision makers. On the other hand, stated preference (SP) surveys have rarely been used to assess the effectiveness of legislative road safety measures. The objective of this paper was to explore the potential impact of an intended safety measure on the behavior of French drivers. In particular, this study investigated the obligation of all drivers always to keep in their vehicles an individual one-use breath alcohol test device. For this purpose, an SP survey was designed and undertaken to elicit individuals’ preferences. Ordered probit models were specified on the responses of 240 young drinkers and drivers in the Paris region. Results indicate two factors as being the most influential: ( a) unemployment and ( b) believing that the new legislation is proposed on public revenue grounds. In particular, both factors cause individuals to reject the legislation, which therefore has a trivial impact on their stated behavior. Targeted communication campaigns should be designed to grow awareness and convince drivers of the beneficial road safety outcomes.

Cluster categorization of urban roads to optimize their noise monitoring.

Road traffic in urban areas is recognized to be associated with urban mobility and public health, and it is often the main source of noise pollution. Lately, noise maps have been considered a powerful tool to estimate the population exposure to environmental noise, but they need to be validated by measured noise data. The project Dynamic Acoustic Mapping (DYNAMAP), co-funded in the framework of the LIFE 2013 program, is aimed to develop a statistically based method to optimize the choice and the number of monitoring sites and to automate the noise mapping update using the data retrieved from a low-cost monitoring network. Indeed, the first objective should improve the spatial sampling based on the legislative road classification, as this classification is mainly based on the geometrical characteristics of the road, rather than its noise emission. The present paper describes the statistical approach of the methodology under development and the results of its preliminary application to a limited sample of roads in the city of Milan. The resulting categorization of roads, based on clustering the 24-h hourly LAeqh, looks promising to optimize the spatial sampling of noise monitoring toward a description of the noise pollution due to complex urban road networks more efficient than that based on the legislative road classification.

La via legislativa alllOpen Access: prospettive comparate (The Legislative Road to Open Access: Comparative Perspectives)

The aim of this paper is to offer a first overview of the new Italian law on Open Access (OA) to scientific articles (art. 4 l. 112/20013). The analysis is based on some comparative remarks and policy considerations. The main argument is that formal law can be an outstanding instrument to implement the OA principle. However, the ultimate success of OA depends on a radical change of the norms of science, as well as on economic, organizational and educational investments.

The legislative road to Silicon Valley

Must policymakers seeking to replicate the success of Silicon Valley's venture capital market first copy other US institutions, such as deep and liquid stock markets? Or can legislative reforms alone make a significant difference? In this paper, we compare the economic and legal determinants of venture capital investment, fundraising, and exits. We introduce a cross-sectional and time series empirical analysis across 15 countries and 14 years of data spanning an entire business cycle. We show that liberal bankruptcy laws stimulate entrepreneurial demand for venture capital; that government programmes more often hinder than help the development of private equity, and that the legal environment matters as much as the strength of stock markets. Our results imply generalizable lessons for legal reform. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Functional Participation in EU Delegated Regulation: Lessons from the United States at the EU's "Constitutional Moment"

“Delegated regulation,” “delegated legislation,” “administrative rulemaking,” or “regulatory implementation” are well-known phenomena in modern democracies. Given the complexity of contemporary societies and the broad range of issues (often of a technical nature) in which the state intervenes, regulation cannot entirely be assured by normal legislative procedure, as this is too cumbersome, not flexible enough to adapt to rapidly changing conditions, and often not able to integrate the necessary technical expertise. Legislation will, therefore, delegate part of the regulatory process to less cumbersome bodies. Yet while delegated regulation is a general practice, and while its necessity is generally acknowledged, it has not been an easy task to make it fit with the dominant understanding of democracy in which parliament would adopt all measures of a generally binding nature, whereas a “neutral bureaucracy” would ensure the application of the general rule to the specific case. There are considerable differences in the way the United States and the European Union (EU) deal with delegated regulation and how they conceptualize the legitimacy of such regulatory procedures beyond the normal legislative road. In the United States, delegated regulation is the resort of independent regulatory agencies, and the legitimacy of such administrative rulemaking has been thought of mainly in terms of legislative mandate, due process, and participatory rights guaranteed by judicial review. In the EU, delegated regulation is mainly adopted through the so-called comitology procedures, where regulatory powers are not delegated to independent agencies, but are exercised by the European Commis-

Functional Participation in EU Delegated Regulation: Lessons from the United States at the EU's “Constitutional Moment”

“Delegated regulation,” “delegated legislation,” “administrative rulemaking,” or “regulatory implementation” are well-known phenomena in modern democracies. Given the complexity of contemporary societies and the broad range of issues (often of a technical nature) in which the state intervenes, regulation cannot entirely be assured by normal legislative procedure, as this is too cumbersome, not flexible enough to adapt to rapidly changing conditions, and often not able to integrate the necessary technical expertise. Legislation will, therefore, delegate part of the regulatory process to less cumbersome bodies. Yet while delegated regulation is a general practice, and while its necessity is generally acknowledged, it has not been an easy task to make it fit with the dominant understanding of democracy in which parliament would adopt all measures of a generally binding nature, whereas a “neutral bureaucracy” would ensure the application of the general rule to the specific case. There are considerable differences in the way the United States and the European Union (EU) deal with delegated regulation and how they conceptualize the legitimacy of such regulatory procedures beyond the normal legislative road. In the United States, delegated regulation is the resort of independent regulatory agencies, and the legitimacy of such administrative rulemaking has been thought of mainly in terms of legislative mandate, due process, and participatory rights guaranteed by judicial review. In the EU, delegated regulation is mainly adopted through the so-called comitology procedures, where regulatory powers are not delegated to independent agencies, but are exercised by the European Commis-