Description
Book SynopsisAround the globe, ex ante evaluation of legislation has become an established rationalisation of legislative processes. Legislators, politicians, and the public at large increasingly demand new laws to have a particular effect and no unwanted side effects. Various instruments are being applied that all have in common that they must predict the effect of new legislation. Until now, most publications on regulatory impact assessment praise such instruments as being extremely useful. Scepticism, however, is in order as well. Is it not as difficult to predict the future effect of a new set of rules in our complex society as it is to predict where our society as a whole is going? The search for an answer to this sceptical question is at the heart of the book. The newly established Research Group for Methodology of Law and Legal Research at Tilburg University (the Netherlands) brought together some of Europe’s top specialists in the field of ex ante evaluation of legislation, with backgrounds in law, social science, political science, and law and economics. The result of their collaborative effort is a comprehensive and critical book on the pros and cons and on the opportunities, limitations, and challenges of ex ante assessment of legislation.
Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements Contributors Research Group for Methodology of Law and Legal Research Abbreviations Introduction 1. Ex Ante Evaluation of Legislation: An Introduction Jonathan Verschuuren and Rob van Gestel I Context of Ex Ante Evaluation 2. The Context of the Rise of Ex Ante Evaluation Patricia Popelier and Victoria Verlinden 3. Ex Ante Evaluation of Legislation Torn among its Rationales Pierre Larouche 4. The Politics of the Ex Ante Evaluation of Legislation Eberhard Bohne 5. Ex Ante Evaluation of Legislation: between Puzzling and Powering Robert Hoppe 6. Pushing Evaluation Forward. Institutionalization as a Means to Foster Methodological Growth of Legislative Ex Ante Evaluation Koen van Aeken II Ex Ante Evaluation in Practice 7. European Impact Assessment and the Choice of Alternative Regulatory Instruments Anne Meuwese and Linda Senden 8. National Experiences with General Forms of Ex Ante Evaluation of Legislation: The Cases of Germany and Sweden Sylvia Veit 9. Assessing the Accuracy of Ex Ante Evaluation through Feedback Research: A Case Study Rob van Gestel and Jan Vranken 10. Assessing Corporate Tax Reform: Incomplete Information and Confl icting Interests Henk Vording and Hans Gribnau Conclusions 11. Conclusions. A Conditional Yes to Ex Ante Evaluation of Legislation Jonathan Verschuuren and Rob van Gestel Index
