Synopses & Reviews
Regulatory Encounters reports on a path-breaking study of how government regulation of business in the United States differs in practice from regulation in other economically advanced democracies.
In each of ten in-depth case studies, the contributors to this volume compare a particular multinational corporation's experience with parallel regulatory regimes in the United States and in Japan, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, and the European Union, noting precisely which regulatory precautions were actually implemented in each country. The regulatory systems analyzed include aspects of environmental protection, product safety, debt collection, employees' rights, and patent protection. The studies in Regulatory Encounters indicate that the adversarial and legalistic character of American regulation imposes higher costs and delays on economic activity than comparable regulatory regimes in other economically advanced democracies, and often does not generate higher levels of protection for the public.
Synopsis
This book looks at the effect of government regulation on multinational corporations. By tracking certain corporations and their operations in both the United States and other developed countries, the contributors show that while many people think they are being better served and better protected by America's unusual strict regulatory policies--they're not.
Synopsis
"This is a pathbreaking contribution to a much neglected area of academic study."and#151;Bridget M. Hutter, London School of Economics
"Regulatory Encounters is an extremely impressive book that contains rich, varied, and convincing case studies on an important topic, American 'adversarial legalism.'"and#151;R. Shep Melnick, Boston College
About the Author
Robert A. Kagan is Professor of Political Science and Director at the Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of
Going by the Book: The Problem of Regulatory Unreasonableness (1982) and
Regulatory Justice: Implementing a Wage-Price Freeze (1978).
Lee Axelrad is an attorney in private practice in Sacramento, California.
Table of Contents
How much do national styles of law matter? / Robert A. Kagan. -- Pt. I. Environmental regulation. Poles apart: industrial waste management regulation and enforcement in the United States and Japan / Kazumasu Aoki, Lee Axelrad, and Robert A. Kagan ; Investigation and remediation of contaminated manufacturing sites in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands / Lee Axelrad ; Siting solid waste landfills: the permit process in California, Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom, and the Neterlands / Holly Welles and Kirsten Engel ; The air pollution permit process for U.S. and German automobile assembly plants / John P. Dwyer, Richard W. Brooks and Alan C. Marco. -- Pt. II. Legal rights and litigation. Employee termination practices in the United States and Canada / Laura Beth Nielsen ; Credit card debt collection and the law: Germany and the United States / Charles Ruhlin. ; Obtaining and protecting patents in the United States, Europe, and Japan / Deepak Somaya. -- Pt. III. Regulating product safety. Licensing biologics in Europe and the United States / Martine Kraus ; New chemical notification laws in Japan, the United States, and the European Union / Lori A. Johnson, Tatsuya Fujie, and Marius Aalders ; The consequences of adversarial legalism / Robert A. Kagan.