Multilevel Regulation Lectoraat– as complicated as it sounds?
Blog post by Carla Loghin[1]
Let’s start off by emphasizing on the meaning of what regulation is. Regulation means: ‘an official rule or the act of controlling something’, as Cambridge Dictionary defines. Thus, applying this at different levels of societal actors it purely means that we realize the connection between the different actors and their delegated power (or indirectly acquired power) with which they affect our every-day activities, by passing laws, policies and conclude legal initiatives: institutions of the European Union, the United Nations the WTO.
Regardless of benefits we from such organizations, we all are aware of the challenges they face, that need to be fulfilled: are they transparent? Do they democratically and efficiently represent our interests? Can some other actor do it better and more effective?
It is time that we answer these questions and we try innovating the traditional regulation mechanisms, it is time that we experiment, together with lecturers, students and professionals, in order to fill in the gaps and analyze the strengths of the regulatory systems. We are here to innovate and seek ways of building on what the society has learned for the past decades, just so we can understand our policies, laws and legal boundaries better.
And here is where the MLR (Multilevel Regulation Lectoraat) comes into play, brainstorming ideas with you, creating research papers with you, helping you become an active actor on the stage of Multilevel Regulation. The Lectoraat seeks to bring together multiple actors in the area of regulation and incentivize the research in this area, in order to investigate the role and potential of private actors. Do they have the necessary tools to address public policy and societal problems? Are they the contemporary actors, assuming (or gaining) more and more power in order to shift the public policy mechanisms?
Under the first research line of the Lectoraat, we emphasize the Experimentalist governance and dispute resolution topic. Namely, what happens when you CAN make such a decision and take a stand to regulating/ choosing your own ‘dispute’ settlement procedure, for example? What if private actors are better equipped with the tools necessary to improvetraditional public regulation?
The second research line of the Lectoraat focuses on Informal dispute resolution practices, namely the extent informal dispute resolution helps solve the legitimacy issues if traditional regulatory bodies in the public sector, while analyzing the core principles of ADR in order to fill in the public regulatory gaps.
The third research line is directed at Public awareness and dispute resolution, focused on filling the role of disseminating knowledge on dispute resolution through research, public events and practical toolkits, showing the public how ADR methods are affecting their everyday lives.
Therefore, welcome to the Multilevel Regulation Lectoraat!
If you would like to join our Projects.…
[1]Carla Loghin is a 4thyear student in the ‘International and European Law’ Programme and also the Leader of the Student Projects within the Lectoraat Multilevel Regulation.