Regulation in Australia

Freiberg is to be congratulated for consolidating and updating the discourse on regulation with a focus on Australia. This discourse is otherwise to be found widely dispersed in journal articles and other academic writings, and papers produced by domestic and international governmental and non-governmental bodies, such as the Productivity Commission and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. … Regulation in Australia will provide students of regulation with a solid understanding of regulation and a platform from which to engage with, and question, regulatory design and implementation. For experienced practitioners, Regulation in Australia provides an opportunity to think more deeply about the practice of regulation and in a much broader context than their day-to-day work would typically offer. – Catherine Dermody, Australian Law Journal, August 2018, 92

This work is written by one of the most eminent scholars in law and criminology in Australia. Professor Freiberg is a prolific writer with over a hundred publications under his belt and was previously dean of the Law Faculty at Monash University. This work has “packed in” 17 chapters to cover all forms of governmental interventions from hard to soft laws. While the title of the book includes the word “Australia”, the coverage of the subject-matter is much more far-reaching. It is perhaps one of the best-written works to date on regulation in Australia that is accessible to students, academics and practitioners, allowing readers to quickly grasp the many nuances and intricacies of modern regulation with relative ease. Such craft could only be accomplished by a highly skilled and experienced writer. … In a nutshell, the details and the author’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the subject-matter are unparalleled. Though at times the tide of information and insights can be overwhelming to read in one sitting, one can only imagine that writing this work must have been nothing less than a labour of love. This book has made a considerable contribution to the literature by synthesising, unpacking and critiquing the many facets of regulation. More importantly, it is a valuable resource because it is comprehensive in both scope and depth, condensed into nearly 600 pages that are accessible to laypersons and experts alike, making it a must-read book on regulation. – Angus Young, International Company and Commercial Law Review, July 2018

This book provides interesting theory on the regulation which provides the background to what lawyers do every day. The author defines regulation as “intervention by public sector actors in . . . economic and social activities”. This includes legislation, taxes, registration and licensing in the pursuit of public policy. It opens with a history of regulation in Australia, and largely comprises chapters on why regulate, who regulates, managing the regulatory process, regulatory methods, economic regulation, transactional regulation, authorisation as regulation, informational regulation, structural regulation, compliance, enforcement and sanctions, regulatory strategies and evaluating regulation. The final chapters discuss why regulation may fail, and the future of regulation and regulating the future. There are 24 diagrams such as “when to regulate”, “who to regulate”, “enforcement pyramid” and “regulatory tools”. Appendix 1 contains a list of Commonwealth, state and territory regulators. Appendix 2 contains a Comprehensive Regulation Act 2025 described as “an either aspirational or apocalyptic vision of an all-encompassing regulatory statute”. The book contains a user-friendly glossary of definitions from those familiar to practitioners like “co-regulation” to jargon like “compliance gap” and “wicked problem”. As well, there is a bibliography, including citations of reports by the ACCC, ASIC, BCA, Productivity Commission and governments. This is a useful book which will remind practitioners of their role in the regulatory process. – Paul Latimer, InPrint, Law Institute Journal Victoria, April 2018