Selected Publications: Regulation as Partnership

3. März 2021, von Pedro Magalhães Batista

Foto: Kurt Cotoaga

Justin (Gus) Hurwitz explores a new approach to regulation in one of his latest projects, "Regulation as Partnership," at the Journal of Law & Innovation. According to Hurwitz, the history of regulation in the last century can be understood as a pendulum that continuously bounces from reliance on market-based forces to reliance on regulatory oversight. However, "neither of these approaches to regulation, especially in dynamic or fast-moving industries, has proven to be an entirely satisfactory approach to facilitating the growth of socially important industries while maximizing the social benefits of those industries." Critical to the traditional adversarial approach we use to understand the regulation, Hurwitz explores examples in which better dynamics to align public and private interests were found through partnership. While public-private partnerships evolved from more traditional government contracting, they have later developed their own governance practices. The author better explores the formation of those governance norms in industries such as communication and cybersecurity. Building upon Ostrom's work on governing the commons and Hart's work on incomplete contracts, Hurwitz proposes that perceiving and exploring regulation as a partnership has many advantages: governments can leverage on private partners' efficiency and knowledge, build relational contracts and reduce agency problems, and better align private and public interests.