Introduction

Abstract

The premise of the book is that the quest for regulation is expected to grow in the near future as a consequence of the emergence of a (world) risk society (Beck 1992, 1999, 2008). As an illustration, one may think of how risks related to food, drugs, infectious diseases, climate change, and financial crises have steadily been penetrating all conditions of life in recent times. One of the most immediate consequences of a world risk society is that the decisions, acts, and omissions of few entail risks for many. A major source of these emerging risks entailing large societal damage can be traced to the growing complexity and connectivity brought about by an ever more global economy. As a result, small adverse shocks can have catastrophic consequences (Boin 2010). More formally stated, the complexity and connectivity resulted in risk distribution functions with fat tails. Institutional efforts to manage risks have triggered different attempts to regulate several risk-related activities. Businesses, business’ products, and services are an integrated part of most conditions of life and, as such, involve different risks. That is why business regulation must be an integrated part of this stock of risk-based regulation.