How statutory duties shape the decision making of an economic regulator: Insights from the energy regulatory community, past and present

Harker, Michael and Reader, David (2022) How statutory duties shape the decision making of an economic regulator: Insights from the energy regulatory community, past and present. Journal of Law and Society, 49 (1). pp. 118-150. ISSN 0263-323X

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Abstract

This article is concerned with how statutory duties structure regulatory decisions. Rather than focusing on the role of the courts, we explore statutory interpretation by a regulator as a quasi-autonomous exercise, with external influences and internal norms and customs. To investigate this further, we conducted a series of semi-structured elite interviews with senior members of the energy ‘regulatory community’, past and present. Energy regulation has been selected as a case study due to the controversies in recent years over the legitimate limits of economic regulation, as successive governments have imposed broader public interest goals on the regulator, resulting in a proliferation of statutory objectives. This increased complexity has arguably obscured the appropriate contours and rationales of economic regulation. Nevertheless, it is unrealistic to completely separate regulatory policy and politics.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Early title: Statutory duties and shaping the decision-making of an economic regulator: insights from the energy regulation community past and present Funding information: This research was supported by the UK Energy Research Centre's EPSRC grant on Equity and Justice in Energy Markets (Grant Number: EP/L024756/1).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sociology and political science,law ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3312
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Law
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Media, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Competition, Markets and Regulation
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	02 Feb 2022 11:30
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2025 00:05
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/83259
DOI:	10.1111/jols.12339

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