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The Regulation of Organised Civil Society

The Regulation of Organised Civil Society

Author: Jonathan Garton
Publisher: Hart Publishing
ISBN: 9781841138008
Published In: July 2009
Format: Hardback , 288 pages
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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Although much has been written on organised civil society - the loose collective of organisations that operate outside the public sector, the private market and the family unit - over the past thirty years, there has been little jurisprudential analysis.

This is in spite of the fact that a number of jurisdictions, including England, New Zealand, Northern Ireland and Scotland, have recently implemented major reforms to the regulatory frameworks in which civil society organisations operate, with a particular emphasis on the charitable sectors. Redressing the balance, this monograph considers from first principles when it is appropriate to regulate organised civil society and how that regulation might best be accomplished.

Four broad questions are addressed:_

(a) whether the activities undertaken by civil society organisations are distinct from the activities undertaken by the state or the market, either because they are pursued in unique ways, or because they produce unique outcomes;
(b) if so, whether it is justifiable to regulate organised civil society activities in a sector-specific way;
(c) if it is, whether the peculiar characteristics of these activities make one type of regulation more appropriate than another; and
(d) whether it is appropriate to distinguish between charities and other civil society organisations for regulatory purposes. The monograph integrates the traditionally separate disciplines of civil society theory and regulation theory to provide answers to these questions and advance a rudimentary theory of regulation specific to organised civil society.

Jonathan Garton is a Lecturer in Law at King's College, London.

This is a valuable and timely book that will, I hope, stimulate other people's thinking about a relatively neglected topic in law and society scholarship as much as it has mine.
Robert Dingwall
Law and Politics Book Review
June 15, 2010