Framing the Commons: Cost-Cutting Issues in Regulation

Regulation, whatever its shape or form, is integral to the lives of all New Zealanders. As ongoing problems such as the leaky homes saga show, badly designed and poorly implemented regulation can cost the taxpayer millions. Framing the Commons is a product of the Regulatory Reform Project, a $1.85 million research project led by Victoria University Law School (partnering with NZIER and Chapman Tripp) and funded by the New Zealand Law Foundation. It analyzes the challenges of developing regulation in New Zealand, including how to work with New Zealand's unique features; the role of experimentation, monitoring, and review; finding the balance between certainty and discretion in regulation; and the pros and cons of the analytical techniques (such as cost-benefit analysis) that are used for evaluating regulations once they are implemented. It makes a strong case for focusing on the early stages of the regulation-making process and building in better processes to learn from existing regulation, in order to improve the flexibility and durability of regulation in New Zealand.