Julia Black

London School of Economics and Political Science, Law, Faculty Member

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I'm an academic and a practitioner specialising in the dynamics and legitimacy of regulatory governance systems. I look at systems at all governance levels and of all types. I focus particularly but not uniquely on financial services, and am interested in regulation across a wide range of sectors and activities, including risks and emerging technologies.

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Papers by Julia Black

Regulating AI and Machine Learning: Setting the Regulatory Agenda

European Journal of Law and Technology, 2019

Disruptive technologies arrive with regularity. Whether it is the first industrial revolution wit... more Disruptive technologies arrive with regularity. Whether it is the first industrial revolution with steam powered factories and transportation, or subsequent revolutions which brought about chemical engineering, communications revolutions, aviation and eventually biotechnology and digitisation. We stand at the edge of the next revolution the AI revolution where methods of artificial intelligence and machine learning offer possibilities hitherto unimagined. How this revolution develops and how our society absorbs the potential of this new technology will be largely determined by the models of regulation and governance applied to the nascent technology. In this paper the authors examine lessons from history and propose a framework for identifying and analysing the key elements of regulatory regimes and their interactions which can form the basis for developing a new model for AI regulatory systems. Furthermore, it argues that the goals of such systems should be to manage the risks different models and uses of AI pose, not just the ethical issues they create.

Constitutionalising Regulatory Governance Systems

Social Science Research Network, 2021

How to ensure, in democratic states, that those to whom power has been delegated act in line with... more How to ensure, in democratic states, that those to whom power has been delegated act in line with constitutional norms and values is a perennial, and much explored, question. This article suggests that in analysing how constitutional actors seek to govern regulatory institutions we should ‘flip’ the perspective, and not just look (down) at regulatory systems from a constitutional perspective, but also look (up) at constitutions from a regulatory perspective. This flipped perspective will be used to conceptualise constitutions not from the starting point of established constitutional, legal or political theory but from a particular regulatory theory, that of decentred or polycentric regulation, and to explore the different ways in which ‘regulators are regulated’ through the interplay of the constitutional governance system with the regulatory systems it creates. We can thus think of a constitutional governance system as both constituting and regulating, or constitutionalising, a reg...

The development of risk based regulation in financial services: Canada, the UK and Australia

The research was conducted whilst I was on research leave funded by the ESRC through their fundin... more The research was conducted whilst I was on research leave funded by the ESRC through their funding of the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the LSE, and I thank them for their support. I also thank Milena Radoycheva for her research assistance. All responsibility for views expressed, errors and omissions is my own.

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Involving consumers in securities regulation

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The rise (and fall?) of principles based regulation

Black, Julia (2011) The rise (and fall?) of principles based regulation. In: Alexander, Kern and ... more

Regulatory Review 2006/2007

The development of the global markets as rule-makers: engagement and legitimacy

Law and Financial Markets Review

The first article in this series 1 assessed the extent to which the markets are able to act as ru... more The first article in this series 1 assessed the extent to which the markets are able to act as rule-makers and the nature of the "normative arena" in which they do so. This article considers how their role could develop and the implications of that in terms of market engagement in the rule-making process and legitimacy. The final article in the series will look at some of the risks this changing landscape creates, particularly in the context of dispute resolution and enforcement. 218 Law and Financial Markets Review May 2008 SPECIAL FEATURE The development of the global markets as rule-makers May 2008 Law and Financial Markets Review 229 The development of the global markets as rule-makers May 2008 Law and Financial Markets Review 233

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Making a success of Principles-based regulation

Law and Financial Markets Review

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Reconceiving Financial Markets—From the Economic to the Social

Journal of Corporate Law Studies

The article develops a social conception of financial markets, and draws out some of the implicat... more The article develops a social conception of financial markets, and draws out some of the implications of that conception for financial regulators. Drawing on bodies of institutionalist theories, social network theories, and the sociology of science and technology, including technical systems, I suggest that we can develop a far more enriched conception of markets than that of the still relatively sparse neoclassical economic model of markets, even as modifi ed by behavioural economics. The move to this social conception of markets provides an alternative cognitive framework for how regulators understand the behaviour of actors within markets, the function of markets, their structure and organisation, the role of calculative devices in price formation and governance processes, the power relations and interconnections between actors within markets, the role of trust and confi dence in markets, the relevance of internal organisational dynamics to understanding behaviour of organisations within markets, and the role that regulators and supervisors themselves have in constituting markets and shaping decisions that market actors make.

Driving Priorities in Risk-based Regulation: What's the Problem?

Journal of Law and Society

Both risk-based and problem-centred regulatory techniques emphasize giving priority to matters th... more Both risk-based and problem-centred regulatory techniques emphasize giving priority to matters that are serious and important. In the case of both risks and problems, however, issues of identification, selection, and prioritization involve inescapably normative and political choices. It is important, therefore, to understand why regulators target the risks and problems that they do; which factors drive such choices; and how regulation is affected when these factors pull in similar or opposite directions. Such an understanding provides a fresh framework for thinking about the challenges of both risk-based and problem-centred regulation. The analysis presented here does not oppose either riskbased or problem-centred regulation, but it illustrates why neither is as straightforward as simple calls for`better regulation' may suggest, and it proposes ways in which key aspects of those challenges may be addressed. Risk-based regulation has been a central tenet of the United Kingdom government's`better regulation' agenda since the Hampton review in 2005, and it is a key element of the better regulation agenda of the OECD and many of its member states. 1 The core proposal of risk-based regulation is that regulators, in principle, should focus their efforts on the most serious risks that they face in achieving their objectives. This risk-based approach to

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Proceduralising regulation: part I

The first part of this article set out two possible models of proceduralisation. This second part... more The first part of this article set out two possible models of proceduralisation. This second part of this article begins to develop one of those forms, 'thick' proceduralisation, building on but modifying Habermas's model of deliberative democracy in two important respects. First, it is argued that it is not sufficient simply to call for deliberation for there is a real likelihood that even if all deliberants can be brought together true communication will be blocked by difference; difference in the modes of discourse, the techniques of argument, language and validity claims. Discourse may therefore have to be mediated through the adoption of strategies of translation, mapping and dispute resolution. Whether regulators can or should perform such a mediating role remains however an open question. Second, it is argued that deliberative modes of policy formation and regulation are compatible with more pluralist and polyarchical arrangements than Habermas allows, and indeed that such arrangements may need to be adopted for thick proceduralisation to become operative.

Perspectives on derivatives regulation

Black, Julia (2000) Perspectives on derivatives regulation. In: Hudson, Alastair,(ed.) Modern fin... more

Which Arrow?": Rule Type and Regulatory Policy

Public Law, 1995

Outcomes focused regulation – the historical context

Decentring Regulation: The Role of Regulation and Self-Regulation in a''Post-Regulatory''World

Proceduralising regulation: part II

When risk-based regulation aims low: A strategic framework

Regulation & Governance, 2012

Risk based regulation is becoming a familiar regulatory strategy in a wide range of areas and cou... more Risk based regulation is becoming a familiar regulatory strategy in a wide range of areas and countries. Regulatory attention tends to focus, at least initially, on high risks but low-risk regulatees or activities tend to form the bulk of the regulated population. In the context of expanding remits and shrinking budgets, regulators are turning their attention to how to manage such risks, and in short, asking 'how low can they go' in regulating them. The first part of this article examines the particular issues that arise with respect to selecting and managing low risks, and considers how regulators tend to deal with lower risks in practice. The second part, published in the subsequent issue of this journal, then develops a strategic framework for regulators to employ when choosing intervention strategies and it assesses whether, and how, such a framework could be used by regulatory agencies in a manner that is operable, dynamic, transparent and justifiable.

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Risk-based Regulation

OECD Reviews of Regulatory Reform, 2010

 Scope and aims of research  What is risk based regulation?  Main elements of a risk based fra... more

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The Development of Risk-Based Regulation in Financial Services: Just ‘Modelling Through’?

Regulatory Innovation, 2005

The Role of Risk in Regulatory Processes

Oxford Handbooks Online, 2010

This article explores the role that risk plays in different parts of the regulatory process, in o... more This article explores the role that risk plays in different parts of the regulatory process, in order to evaluate the extent to which risk has become an ‘organising principle’ of governance and its implications. This article focuses more specifically on the role that risk plays in constituting, framing, and structuring regulation and regulatory processes, and analyses some of the key themes of the broader risk literature in this context. It argues that risk currently plays four main roles in regulation: providing an object of regulation; justifying regulation; constituting and framing regulatory organisations and regulatory procedures; and framing accountability relationships. This article explores each of these roles. It suggests that in each case, the role of ‘risk’ serves to destabilise decision-making, leading governments and regulators to attempts to find stability through attempts to rationalise processes and procedures, attempts which are often unsuccessful due to the inheren...