Law Commons^™

Thailand And Its Shortcut Towards General Competition In Telecommunications Industry, Piyabutr Bunaramrueang

piyabutr bunaramrueang

It is commonly known that telecommunications industry requires a specific set of regulations in dealing with its own critical issues, particularly of asymmetric regulation in its context of natural monopoly. Today in the digital age, telecommunications industry is transitioning towards general competition meaning that the specific conditions are fading out; specific rules are becoming unnecessary. The United States and the European Union have provided the most advanced examples in this area which have being developed for more than a century. Nonetheless, each country has its own conditions and specific requirements. For examples, the United States possesses very strong systems interplaying …

Telecommunications In Transitioning Towards General Competition: A Comparative Study On Interconnection In The U.S., The Eu And Thailand, Piyabutr Bunaramrueang

piyabutr bunaramrueang

Telecommunications industry is generally known for its specific set of regulations in dealing with its own critical issues, particularly of competition in the context of natural monopoly and asymmetric regulation. Interconnection is the major condition which is intensely regulated. Nonetheless, telecommunications regulations are transitioning towards general competition meaning that the specific conditions are fading out; specific rules are becoming unnecessary. The regulation of interconnection is now in question. The United States and the European Union have provided the most advanced examples which have been developing for more than a century. However, each country has its own conditions and specific requirements. …

Presidents And Process: A Comparison Of The Regulatory Process Under The Clinton And Bush (43) Administrations, Stuart Shapiro

Stuart Shapiro

Do procedural controls placed on the regulatory process allow politicians to control bureaucratic decisionmaking? I use data on the regulatory process under the Clinton and Bush Administrations to assess the differences between these presidents with distinct ideological regulatory agendas. I find that the number of comments received, the changes made between proposal and finalization of rules, the frequency with which agencies bypass notice and comment, the frequency of use of different regulatory analyses, and the time to complete a rulemaking did not vary substantially between the two presidencies. This raises questions about the role of procedural controls on agency decisionmaking.

Forensic Dna Phenotyping: Regulatory Issues, Bert-Jaap Koops, Maurice Schellekens

Bert-Jaap Koops

Forensic DNA phenotyping is an interesting new investigation method: crime-scene DNA is analyzed to compose a description of the unknown suspect, including external and behavioral features, geographic origin and perhaps surname. This method is allowed in some countries but prohibited in a few others. Most countries have not yet taken a stance on this. This article addresses the question to what extent this investigation method should be allowed. The relevant regulatory issues are analyzed: the right of people not to know what their DNA tells about propensities for diseases or other propensities, data protection and privacy, stigmatization and discrimination, and …

Federal Search Commission? Access, Fairness, And Accountability In The Law Of Search, Oren Bracha, Frank Pasquale

Oren Bracha

Should search engines be subject to the types of regulation now applied to personal data collectors, cable networks, or phone books? In this article, we make the case for some regulation of the ability of search engines to manipulate and structure their results. We demonstrate that the First Amendment, properly understood, does not prohibit such regulation. Nor will such interventions inevitably lead to the disclosure of important trade secrets. After setting forth normative foundations for evaluating search engine manipulation, we explain how neither market discipline nor technological advance is likely to stop it. Though savvy users and personalized search may …

Credit Derivatives: Industry Initiative Supplants Need For Direct Regulatory Intervention. A Model For The Future Of U.S. Regulation?, John T. Lynch

John T Lynch

A brief introduction to credit derivatives and the current state of the market is given as a means of orienting the reader to the complexity and evolving importance of these financial instruments. This comment then offers a detailed survey of the recent developments in the credit derivatives market from 2005-2006, focusing on the initiative by the market participants that were called to action by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. This model of shifting market control to the private sector is then explored as a central tenet of a revised U.S. financial regulatory structure, proposed in this comment as …

New Governance, Compliance, And Principles-Based Securities Regulation, Cristie L. Ford

Cristie L. Ford

The UK securities regulator, the Financial Services Authority, claims that its "principles-based" approach to securities regulation is simply "better" than what it characterizes as the prescriptive, rules-based American approach. The striking shift in financial sector business from New York to London over the last two years has brought the question of the wisdom of principles-based regulation into sharp relief. In fact, an FSA-style regulatory approach may also be taking hold in Canada, through the agency of the province of British Columbia. This paper examines BC's innovative proposals for a principles-based securities regime through the lens of New Governance theory. I …

The Sec Regulation Of Takeovers: Some Doubts From A Game Theory Perspective And A Proposal For Reform, Sharon Hannes, Omri Yadlin

Sharon Hannes

In theory, a hostile tender offer poses a threat to the target shareholders who, for strategic reasons, may tender their shares in response to an inferior bid. It has therefore been suggested that the decision to tender be made separately from the shareholder vote on the actual merits of the bid. While the regulator has never adopted this proposal, market forces in the poison pill era did generate a mechanism with a similar effect. To overcome a poison pill (a mechanism implemented by managers to thwart bids), the bidder must win the shareholders’ vote in a proxy contest that is …

Pharmaceutical Lemons: Innovation And Regulation In The Drug Industry, Ariel Katz

Ariel Katz

Before a new drug can be marketed the Food and Drug Administration must be satisfied that it is safe and effective. According to conventional wisdom, the cost and delay involved in this process diminish the incentives to invest in the development of new drugs. Accordingly, several reforms aimed at restoring such incentives have been implemented and others have been advocated. This paper challenges the central argument in the debate on the topic, namely that drug regulation and drug innovation are necessarily at odds with each other. Although intuitively appealing, the argument that drug regulation negatively affects the incentives to innovate …

Six Principles For Limiting Government-Facilitated Restraints On Competition, Michal Gal, Inbal Faibish

Michal Gal

Regulation is an important tool to deal with market imperfections. Regulation might, however, sometimes go beyond what is socially justified and create undue restraints on competition. The problem of social engineering is thus to devise a system that will ensure that the optimum combination of competition and regulation is achieved.

This article suggests harnessing the comparative advantages of competition authorities to this task. It proposes six general principles that are aimed at creating a system of "checks and balances" which maintains adequate safeguards to ensure that competition will be limited only where socially warranted. Whereas much has been written about …

Principles For Policymaking About Collaborative Law And Other Adr Processes, John Lande

John Lande

This Article articulates a set of principles for policymaking about “alternative dispute resolution” (ADR) to promote values of process pluralism, choice in dispute resolution processes, and sound decisionmaking. It argues that policymakers should use a dispute system design (DSD) framework in analyzing policy options. DSD involves systematically managing a series of disputes rather than handling individual disputes on an ad hoc basis. It generally includes assessing the needs of disputants and other stakeholders, planning to address those needs, providing necessary training and education for disputants and dispute resolution professionals, implementing the system, evaluating it, and making periodic modifications as needed. …