The Improvement of the Regional Regulatory Governance System for Radiation Risk Management: Spatial Analysis on Radiation Hazards in South Korea

Since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, nuclear regulators have strengthened safety standards or decided to decommission the nuclear power plant. The vast majority of radiation is from nuclear power plants, so safety measures are also concentrated in nuclear power plants. Radioactive materials located much closer to the people are scattered around the nation. However, it is difficult for citizens to predict the radiation risk around them because regulatory agencies do not provide adequate information on radiation. The main goal of this study is to analyze the spatial distribution patterns of radioactive materials that serve as indicators for potential risk from a radiological hazard. The empirical findings in this study demonstrate the presence of spatial autocorrelation for the number of radiation licenses among 244 regions in the Republic of Korea. The policy implications are three-fold: (1) it is necessary to improve regulatory governance in consideration of permitted use; (2) the regional offices of regulatory agency can be established based on the identified spatial distribution of permitted use; (3) it is required to improve the information-disclosure system for materials. This study provides an opportunity to create a safer society by understanding the radiation around the public in general.

The regulatory governance conditions that support effective food policies for population nutrition: a qualitative comparative analysis

Objective: To identify the regulatory governance factors that lead to food policies achieving improvements in food environment, consumer behaviour and diet-related health outcomes. Design: Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) was used to investigate the relationship between regulatory governance conditions and population nutrition outcomes. The regulatory governance conditions examined entailed: high industry involvement in the policy process, regulatory design, policy instrument design, policy monitoring, and enforcement. Participants: N=29 policy cases in the policy areas of food reformulation, nutrition labelling, food taxation and food marketing. Setting: Policies implemented in 13 countries. Results: Comprehensive monitoring was identified as a necessary regulatory governance condition for food policies to have an impact and was present in 94% of policy cases that had a positive impact on nutrition outcomes. We identified two sufficient combinations of regulatory governance conditions. The first sufficient combination of conditions comprised an absence of high industry involvement in the policy process, combined with the presence of strict regulatory design, best-practice instrument design, and comprehensive monitoring and enforcement. Ninety-six percent of policy cases with positive impacts on nutrition outcomes displayed this combination. The second sufficient combination of conditions comprised an absensce of high industry involvement in the policy process, best practice instrument design and comprehensive monitoring. Eighty-two percent of policy cases with positive impacts on nutrition outcomes displayed this combination. Conclusion: These findings show the importance of regulatory governance on policy outcomes. They suggest a need for more government-led nutrition policy processes and transparent monitoring systems that are independent from industry.

IMO’s Marine Environmental Regulatory Governance and China’s Role: An Empirical Study of China’s Submissions

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) plays a significant role in global marine environmental governance, providing a forum of regulatory oversight for member states. Member states are the main actors of the IMO and exert considerable influence on the process of lawmaking. Among these member states, China is unique due to its multiple identities. There are various factors influencing interests behind China’s multiple identities, which fully engage the country in various shipping and maritime trade activities. This article examines China’s role in the IMO marine environmental regulatory governance. It identifies the impact of China on global ocean governance and indicates the development and reforms in the global governance system. China enacted the China Ocean Agenda 21 for its strategy of ocean development. Thus, China is the object of study in this examination of empirical research that collects submissions from 2001 to 2020 related to marine environmental governance. The findings reveal that the extent to which China participates in such governance has considerably increased, and although the contribution of China’s submissions is still in development, its role in the IMO is no longer merely that of a follower, and the efforts of the country have had a positive influence on the IMO’s marine environmental regulatory governance, including its legal instruments.

The Politics of Regulation in Ireland

There has been a global trend towards greater dependence on regulation since the 1980s. This chapter examines how this has played out in Ireland. Ireland offers an interesting case study of regulatory governance because of the long-standing practice of delegating key welfare functions to NGOs, which established the early Irish state as regulator as well as direct service provider. Subsequently, changes in state structures align to wider global trends towards regulatory governance. Nevertheless, there are also particular national characteristics, with significant weaknesses in regulatory capacity and with respect to accountability. Arguably, the global financial crisis, and the ensuing crises that hit Ireland from 2008, have shifted regulation towards a less exceptional model, with better established independent capacity over financial regulation, and, following a longer trend, growing independent provision for overseeing government. Within Ireland, there is a growing recognition that effective regulation of business and government is becoming a core doctrine.

Strengthening financial integrity and combating economic crimes in the post-pandemic Caribbean: what lies ahead!

Purpose This paper aims to map key strategic concerns that Commonwealth Caribbean States will face in combating economic crimes and strengthening financial integrity in the post-pandemic era. Design/methodology/approach Horizon scanning was used to conduct a qualitative policy analysis of key regulatory developments in international anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFTP) and tax governance, from the perspective of Commonwealth Caribbean countries. Findings This paper finds that the COVID-19 pandemic might widen several fault lines, along the Global North/South axis, in international AML/CFTP and tax regulatory governance. These include the “sustainable development” gap in AML/CFTP norm-making; making the Financial Action Task Force fit-for-purpose; renewed campaigns against “harmful tax competition”; and international commitment to scaling up technical assistance to combat economic crimes in developing countries. It questions the sustainability of the prevailing “levelling the playing field” regulatory approach to AML/CFTP and tax matters and whether serious consideration ought not to be given to mainstreaming “differential treatment” in international AML/CFTP and tax standards, for resource-strapped Caribbean countries. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to assess the strategic policy risks and challenges that will arise from balancing economic recovery and fighting economic crimes by small and vulnerable Commonwealth Caribbean States in the post-pandemic era.

Risk as an Approach to Regulatory Governance: An Evidence Synthesis and Research Agenda

Governments around the world have begun to develop and implement risk governance and risk-based regulation and are often inspired by the insights from risk studies in doing so. Following these developments, scholars have begun to map, explore, and interrogate risk governance models and strategies and risk-based regulatory approaches and instruments, and their performance. This article presents an evidence of academic literature on risk as an approach to regulatory governance. It follows the logic and applies tools of meta-research, a systematic and replicable process of synthesizing research findings across a body of original research. Following a staged approach, 135 peer-reviewed journal articles from an initial body of 1,125 articles were analyzed. The article presents the main findings from the evidence synthesis, presents the gaps in our knowledge, and suggests a future agenda for research on risk as an approach to regulatory governance. The article finds that despite ongoing conceptual and normative debates about the need for risk governance and risk-based regulation, we lack a good understanding of how it operates in practice. Future scholarship is urged to be critical of the potential gap between academic and policy rhetoric on risk-based regulatory governance and the application of this approach to regulatory governance on the ground.

Law and Regulations on Legal Education in India Before, During and After COVID-19 with a Post-COVID-19 Manifesto

This article is in pursuit of a way forward from the pandemic-stricken condition of legal education in India to a future of excellence. It realizes that as much as the pandemic paralyses us and threatens with losses, it educates us, emboldens us and helps us realize our true imaginative and constructive possibilities. What is being threatened is a system ordered through a regulatory governance, which owes its legitimacy to the constitution and rule of law. What is being discovered is the many possibilities—of imagination, experimentation and innovation—of regulations. Hence, this article builds a juxtaposition of regulations as they were before the pandemic and as they are during the pandemic, revealing the contrast between them in their scope and application. Inputs for reimagination found between the contrasts are used for making a manifesto for resilience and change, the relevance of which becomes obvious through a prevailing sentiment that perhaps the world will never be the same again.