Prof. Pauline Westerman presents her new book 'Outsourcing the Law'

On June 18th, Professor Pauline Westerman presented her new book titled “Outsourcing the Law”. The book takes a philosophical perspective on contemporary shifts in how the law is outsourced with the use of the different strategies and techniques, and what challenges it brings for democracy and the rule of law.

In her book, Professor Westerman analyses from a philosophical point of view the kind of rules that are so abundant in contemporary law; rules that only formulate goals and leave it to the norm-addressees (professional associations, expert panels, supervisory boards) to devise the methods to draft/apply/enforce the rules by means of which these goals or targets should be realized.

The author points out that in a number of respects such goal-oriented rules are very different from classical rules and are invariably accompanied by a duty to report on what has been done. The formulation of these goal-orientated rules shifts the balance between regulator and norm-addressee to such an extent that not only juridical decision-making, but also democracy as well as legal research, are affected.

This article was published by the Faculty of Law.

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