Abstract
Summary
The notion of stewardship is common to legal scholars (e.g., constitutional stewardship), environmental scholars (e.g., environmental stewardship) and management scholars (e.g., stewardship theory). The concept has, however, not had much attention in regulatory scholarship. That said, New Zealand is a world leader in that it has made ‘regulatory stewardship’ a statutory obligation for all government departments. What regulatory stewardship could look like, and how to achieve it is not crystal clear yet. In this lecture, Professor Jeroen van der Heijden (Professor of Public Governance and Chair in Regulatory Practice, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington):
- positions the idea of regulatory stewardship in the history of regulatory governance;
- draws lessons from the EU the Better Regulation initiative in Europe for the further development of regulatory stewardship in NZ; and
- argues that, to achieve its full potential, an ethical philosophy for organisations and individuals working in regulation should be added to the current systems thinking of regulatory stewardship in NZ.
About the presenter
Professor Jeroen van der Heijden is the inaugural Chair of Regulatory Practice at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (School of Government). He works at the intersection of regulation and governance, with a specific interest in regulatory stewardship and dynamic governance regimes. The Chair's research aims to help finding suitable local, national and international governance responses to some of the most pressing challenges of our time: climate change, resource depletion, and growing inequalities across the world population.
Professor van der Heijden previously held positions at the Australian National University (School of Regulation and Global Governance), the University of Amsterdam (College of Law), Delft University of Technology (Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management), and Wageningen University (Environmental Policy Group).
Further information about Professor van der Heijden can be found at the website of Victoria University of Wellington.