A regulation is a rule created by an administrative agency or body that interprets the statute(s) setting out the agency's purpose and powers.
In particular, in the European Union, a regulation is directly enforced as law in all EU member states. In most cases, the EU issues Directives which then have to be incorporated into national law in the member states. Directives thus may lead to slightly different laws, whereas Regulations do not.
Concerning EC Law, Regulation has a general aim, and is obligatory in all its elements and directly applicable in all Member States of the European Union. For this reason it constitutes the most effective act amongst Community acts. "The regulation [...] is the veritable European Power. By its establishment, the Community acquires the right to legislate directly for the well-being of the Member States' population, without needing the mediation of national institutions. In the domains were regulatory power is foreseen, there is a real delegation of national sovereignty from Member State to the EC.
"If the treaty establishing the European Community does not make any distinction among Regulations, the Court of Justice has established a differentiation between what it calls 'Basic Regulations' and 'Execution Regulations'. 'Basic Regulations' establish essential rules governing a certain matter, and are normally adopted by the Council. Execution Regulations technically organise these principles; they are usually taken by the Commission or the Council acting on the basis of article 211."
Because regulations are directly effective, the individual countries do not need to pass local laws to bring them into effect, and indeed any local laws contrary to the regulation are overruled (as EC Law is supreme over the laws of the Member States).
Examples of matters introduced by regulation were the new '.eu' ___domain name, and the new European level 'Community Design Right' an example of intellectual property right.
Regulatory Processes Regulation in the context of government and public services means the control of something by rules, as opposed to its prohibition. Regulation represents a compromise between prohibition and no control at all.
Public services can have a potential conflict between commercial procedures, and the interests of the people using these services. Most of these therefore have some form of possibly indirect state regulation. For example, the sale and consumption of alcohol and prescription drugs are controlled by regulation in most countries, as are the food business, provision of personal or residential care, public transport, construction, film and TV, etc..
Regulation can have several elements:
- Public statutes, standards or statements of expectations.
- A process of registration or licencing to approve and to permit the operation of a service usually by a named organisation or person.
- A process of inspection or other form of ensuring standard compliance, or reporting and management of non-compliance: where there is continued non-compliance, then:
- A process of de-licencing whereby that organisation or person would have to stop operating at the expense of acting unlawfully.
Even activities which are not public services often have a limited form of regulation, for example FIFA the association for soccer, RYA for sailing in Britain. Regulation therefore comes close to the idea of an ethics for a given activity, to promote the best interests of the people participating as well as the acceptable continuation of the activitiy itself.
Regulation can be seen to impose unnecessary 'red tape' and other restrictions on businesses. As a result, there has been a movement towards decreasing regulation in recent years. Some people feel that little progress on this has meant that it is aspirational rather than a real intention. See A glimpse into some United Kingdom deregulatory procedures