Cooperation for Governance of Emerging Technologies - Saner

CITATION: Marc A. Saner and Gary E. Marchant, Proactive International Regulatory
Cooperation for Governance of Emerging Technologies, 55 Jurimetrics J. 147–178
(2015).

ABSTRACT: This article provides a systematic checklist to guide proactive bilateral
and international regulatory cooperation (in the sense of “alignment” or “harmonization”) in the context of emerging technologies. The article is structured along a lifecycle starting with preregulatory activities and ending with postregulatory processes. The background research is based on a series of interviews with American and Canadian experts carried out in late 2013 as well as studies of previous international regulatory alignment examples. Our aim is to inform the regulatory debate on how to best develop proactively aligned regulatory programs for emerging technologies in bilateral (e.g., United States-Canada) and international contexts.

Conclusions

Regulatory harmonization, coordination, cooperation, and alignment are often discussed as a binary all or none decision. Our analysis hopefully demonstrates that the goal of bilateral or multilateral regulatory consistency is both more complex and richer than often assumed. We have identified 18 specific aspects of regulation that can be the target of alignment efforts, each illustrated by a real-world example. We consider these to be comparatively “long-hanging fruit” as we judge them both important and feasible—but our list is not exhaustive.

 The list of 18 regulatory alignment targets we have identified will no doubt be supplemented with even more alignment opportunities and targets now and in the future. In the future, this initial list will provide a rich menu of opportunities for regulatory officials and stakeholders to consider when contemplating bilateral or multilateral regulatory alignment, as well as several examples and related cases to foster the broad and creative thinking on this subject. Given that the need for, and interest in, regulatory alignment will surely continue to expand in the future, especially in the context of governance of emerging technologies, the 18 regulatory priorities identified here will undoubtedly be further interrogated, refined, elaborated, and expanded in future discussions and alignment efforts.