Law, Regulation and Regulatory Practice
What the exam tests
Legal literacy for non-lawyers: identifying a valid legal basis, respecting proportionality and fundamental rights, drafting implementable rules, and planning regulatory delivery and enforcement.
Core rules
- Every intervention needs a legal base and an empowered actor. Check competence (who may act), procedure (consultation, notification) and form (regulation, decision, guidance).
- Legality, legal certainty, proportionality and non-retroactivity govern content; in EU law, conferral and subsidiarity apply as well.
- Test necessity and the least restrictive means before choosing binding regulation: consider self- and co-regulation, economic instruments, defaults and information remedies.
- Draft for the reader: define terms, use 'must' for obligations, remove ambiguity, and include commencement, transitional provisions, review and sunset clauses.
- Plan enforcement from day one: who inspects, what evidence, which sanction, what appeal route, and how costs are recovered.
- Assess impacts on business, citizens and the administration; gold-plating domestic rules beyond minimum requirements adds cost without benefit.
Worked example
A city wants to ban e-scooters from pavements. Reasoning: identify the traffic-law basis and whether the city holds delegated power. Apply proportionality - is a total ban necessary, or would a 15 km/h limit plus geofenced no-ride zones and fixed penalties meet the safety objective with less restriction? Check enforceability (who detects a moving scooter?), sanctions, appeal rights and impacts on disabled pedestrians. Injury evidence and enforcement cost decide between options; the chosen instrument carries a 12-month review and published evaluation.
Traps
Reaching for regulation first; a missing or wrong legal base; retroactive effect; vague prohibitions such as 'reasonable speed'; no enforcement or appeal route; and copying rules from another jurisdiction without checking competence or local conditions.