Introduction: Reconceptualizing Regulation in the Era of Globalization

The concept of "regulation" has become sufficiently ubiquitous in recent years, that it may be helpful to begin this collection of papers with some analysis of the term and its usage. At its most general level it refers to the means by which any activity, person, organism or institution is guided to behave in a regular fashion, or according to rule. In principle, reference may be made to the regulation of any kind of social behaviour, which gives the term a very wide scope indeed. However, it is more particularly used, as in this collection, in relation to economic activity. In the context of socio-legal studies, the concept has two main advantages. Firstly, it leaves a useful ambiguity over the extent to which such regular behaviour is generated internally or entails external intervention. Secondly, it embraces all kinds of rules, not only formal state law.