Law v policy: judicial review and judicial deference in the age of hyper-regulation

The increasingly articulate web of regulation which affects virtually every facet of economic activity in the EU risks giving rise to a blurring of the distinction between law and policy impacting not only the primary targets of regulation but also the approach of lawyers in interpreting the rules. While this article focuses on the regulatory framework which has impacted the banking industry in the years following the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) similar issues arise in other sectors affected by a strong regulatory footprint (eg data protection antitrust). The purpose is to consider the limits of administrative action in light of the distinction between law and policy by considering doctrines of judicial deference in the context of judicial review. The article reflects comments made by the author in the context of a keynote address on the occasion of the 6th biennial Stockholm Oxford Law Symposium held...