Abstract

The problem of reconciling the primacy of national competence over regulatory matters with the increasingly interconnected nature of global commerce, global relationships, and global crime, is just as pressing today as it ever has been. This is so despite the fact that countries have worked for years to create and to improve mechanisms for coordinating traditional regulatory areas. New challenges have arisen, and those new problems test the very concept of sovereign competence based on physical territorial lines. Taking the experience of the United States as a reference point, this lecture will address several of the most pressing issues that are now giving rise to conflicts among different States. Conflicting policies still exist among the major developed countries, and new ones arise periodically. In addition, the rift between the developed world and the developing world, and between traditional Western democracies and countries with various forms of non-democratic or theocratic governance, cannot be brushed away. The lecture will focus on several current problems, including international criminal matters, the confounding nature of the Internet for regulatory systems based on territory, and the problems that arise when one country deliberately chooses to leave an area unregulated, while another country seeks to impose limitations on that area. The lecture will conclude with a discussion of possible solutions to these problems.

Reference

Diane P. Wood (Chief United States Judge for the 7th Circuit), “Current Challenges for Transnational Regulation”, Constitutional Law and Society Contemporary Problems, April 18, 2019, 10:00–12:00, room MS001.