Outsourcing the Law: A Philosophical Perspective on Regulation

Not only can services such as cleaning and catering be outsourced, but also governmental tasks such as making, applying and enforcing the law.

Outsourcing the law is usually recommended for its cost-efficiency, flexibility, higher rates of compliance and its promise of deregulation. However, lawmaking is not the same as cleaning and rules are more than just tools to achieve aims. Outsourcing the law brings about profound changes in the way power is distributed.

In this timely book, Pauline Westerman analyses this outsourcing from a philosophical perspective. Outsourcing the Law analyses the particular types of rules to which outsourcing gives rise (performance-indicators), as well as the techniques that are used (benchmarking, auditing) and identifies the key-implications of these shifts for democracy, the Rule of Law, judicial decision-making and even for how legal research is carried out.

The analyses in this book will be a valuable read for legal academics and professionals, students of law, and all those with a keen interest in the relationship between law and regulation.