With the internationalization of trade and capital, national regulatory agencies have encountered mounting problems of transnational corporations evading international law. Many assume that the era when business can be effectively regulated is past since it would be difficult to create an international system of law with enforceable sanctions. While this concern may be well placed, we can understand more about the potential and limits of law if we consider it in the context of other aspects of a global regulatory culture. The purpose of the research being undertaken by Dr. Braithwaite is to develop a theory of the emerging international regulatory order based on a model of legal pluralism in which multiple actors and institutions, working through a variety of formal and informal mechanisms, can affect regulatory outcomes. Data from four nations (the United States, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Poland) for nine areas of regulation (companies and securities regulation, the regulation of competition, financial regulation, taxation, corruption, environmental protection, the regulation of hazardous products, affirmative action, and the regulation of air travel) will be used. Analysis focuses on ten different types of organizational actors that exert regulatory influence in the emerging international regulatory order, the relationships among them, and the different mechanisms that mediate their influence. Formal and informal sanctioning, modeling, external regulation, and self regulation are all hypothesized as important. The theory aims to define and specify how the interaction between mechanisms and actors works in shaping an international regulatory system. The results of the research will not only enhance our understanding of regulatory processes beyond the nation-state but also will contribute substantially to knowledge about diffusion processes and transnational ordering. From a scientific perspective, the study holds promise of generating new theory that fuses national and international perspectives on regulation. From a policy perspective, the lessons of the theory that is developed can be applied to the specification of new means and possibly more effective means by which transnational business may be regulated.
