Responding to the economic crisis: A question of law, policy or politics

Abstract

Introduction: I have been asked to consider the role of the law in the fallout from the financial and economic crisis that by the end of 2007 had become the problem but turned into a crisis by the end of 2008. Governments were called on to rescue financial institutions and to try and to contain the flow on to the real economy. With government intervention the question arose whether regulation of the markets was a necessary or desirable course of action. The debate around the question seemed somewhat unreal in the face of the reality that much of the neo-liberal policy frameworks with their no or regulation ‘lite’ regimes were responsible at least in part for the crisis the world faced. In this address. I argue that the question is not whether to regulate or not to regulate, it is the type and nature of the regulation that is the issue.