A regulatory perspective on the international human rights system

Regulatory theory has paid little attention to international law, and international legal theory, in turn, has largely overlooked the field of regulation. Given that compliance and implementation are two constant anxieties in international law, this lack of engagement with regulatory theory is surprising. In this chapter, I outline some insights that regulatory theory offers to one arena of international law: the protection of human rights. Despite its elaborate system of norms and institutions, human rights law often appears ineffective. International human rights scholars have tended to focus on law as the sole form of regulation in the field and they have paid little attention to other forms of human rights influence. This chapter first outlines the international human rights system and the disappointment it has generated. It sketches some explanations for the perceived failures of the system to affect behaviour and then introduces two aspects of regulatory scholarship that can enrich approaches to protecting human rights. I conclude by considering the value of the concept of responsive regulation to the field