环境法中的过度立法、矫正与行政再规制

Excessive Legislation,Correction,and Administrative Re-regulation in Environmental Law

通过许可豁免声明,环境局承诺在行为人构成一般性违法的情况下不对其采取强制措施。许可豁免声明具有几项重要功能,其中最主要的是应对过度规制问题。当立法者制定详尽的法律规范来处理环境保护等复杂的技术性问题时,就易导致过度规制。许可豁免声明不仅可以应对过度规制问题,还为规制机构提供了规制工具,以便在面临不可预见的挑战时可以灵活迅速地变更规制措施。虽然许可豁免声明既不是法律或政策,也不属于规章或自由裁量权范畴,但它具有重要的“类似法律”的效力。此外,即便许可豁免声明有助于抵消严格的规范限定,但其设置了一系列额外的规制条件和要求,这有助于建立一个在规制、放松规制和再规制之间灵活流转的规制体系。

This article analyzes the use of regulatory position statements(RPSs)by the Environment Agency.Through an RPS,the Environment Agency undertakes to take no enforcement action against an operator in circumstances that ordinarily constitute a breach of the law.The article argues that RPSs serve several important functions,chiefly among which is to respond to regulatory overreach,which arises when legislators enact comprehensive statutory instruments to deal with complex and technical matters such as environmental protection.Beyond responding to regulatory overreach,the RPSs also serve to provide regulators with a regulatory tool that allows flexible and swift changes to the regulatory regime when faced with unforeseen challenges.Although their informal enactment suggests otherwise,the RPSs have significant‘law-like’implications,giving rise to a regulatory hybrid instrument,which is neither law or policy nor a rule or a discretionary power.Moreover,even if RPSs serve to disapply important statutory controls,they impose a range of additional and vague regulatory conditions and requirements.RPSs therefore contribute to a regulatory system which fluctuates between regulation,deregulation and re-regulation.