The Professional Regulator: Masterclass with Professor Malcolm K. Sparrow

This masterclass examines the role of the "Professional Regulator", focusing on the practical and operational challenges which are common across regulatory, enforcement, compliance or disciplinary functions of government, regardless of the specific industries being regulated. Regulatory scholarship has traditionally paid much more attention to regulatory policy (the content of the law) than to regulatory practice, and this masterclass seeks to redress that imbalance. Professor Sparrow has worked closely with professional regulators for more than 25 years, focusing on the strategic and operational dilemmas that are distinctive to harm-reduction or risk-control tasks of government (as distinct from "customer service" roles), and which may involve the use of coercive power and associated discretion.

Masterclass key themes:

- What does it mean to be "risk-based" in enforcement, regulatory, or compliance roles

- What would it take to institutionalize an operational risk-management (or "harm-reduction") approach as a framework for carrying out tasks and reporting accomplishments

- How do we measure an agency's contributions to risk reduction? - What is regulatory craftsmanship, and how might we agency deliver it

- What is the relationship between enforcement discretion and effective risk control? - What are the strengths and weaknesses of alternative regulatory structures (e.g. prescriptive regulation, performance-based, self-regulation, co-regulation, etc.)

- What types of risks ("wicked problems") present special challenges for regulatory operations, and how can those challenges best be met?

Who will attend? This masterclass is designed for upper level regulatory and enforcement practitioners, and is also suitable for Board members or political appointees with oversight responsibility for regulatory operations.