Legislation and regulation: three analytical distinctions

Abstract

We live in an age where legislation and regulation make an increasing impact on our lives. The expansion of legislative and regulatory activities and outputs in the last century and especially in the last four decades has been followed by a growth of scholarly interest. However, far too little attention has been paid to the conceptual and empirical exploration of the relationships between legislation and regulation, and especially to the democratic consequences of their co-evolution, substitutivity, and intersection. This essay provides an introduction to the special issue on legislation and regulation. After introducing the topic, it presents three analytical distinctions between legislation and regulation and introduces the contributions to the issue.