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Law for Sale: A Philosophical Critique of Regulatory Competition

Author: 

Johanna Stark

In "Law for Sale", recently published at Oxford University Press, Dr. Johanna Stark focuses on the philosophical underpinnings, problems and consequences of regulatory competition. The term ‘regulatory competition’ describes a dynamic in which states as producers of legal rules compete for the favour of mobile consumers of their legal products.

Besides discussing regulatory competition, a factual phenomenon, identifying the structural conditions for law markets to occur and referring to particular fields of law where competitive dynamics among legislators can be observed, arguments critical of regulatory competition as a policy approach are presented from the perspective of political theory and philosophy. These arguments provide a clearer picture of the incompatibilities between the theoretical pedigree of regulatory competition – the assumptions we must accept in order to see its promises and its appeal – and other sets of beliefs and commitments that shape our thinking about law and the state. They come o the conclusion that the existence of so-called ‘law markets’ is at odds with both our conception of the functions of legal rules and of key political ideals and principles such as democracy, state autonomy and political authority.

Stark, Johanna. Law for Sale: A Philosophical Critique of Regulatory Competition. Oxford University Press.

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Published:   Oxford University Press, 2019, 224 Seiten.