RegNet scholars quoted in Victorian Law Reform Commission report

RegNet scholars Julie Ayling and John Braithwaite have been quoted in a new Victorian Law Reform Commission report, Use of Regulatory Regimes in Preventing the Infiltration of Organised Crime into Lawful Occupations and Industries. Both Julie and John were members of the Advisory Committee. The report draws on Julie Ayling’s submission and her papers ‘Harnessing Third Parties for Transnational Environmental Crime Prevention’ and ‘Going Dutch”? Comparing Approaches to Preventing Organised Crime in Australia and the Netherlands’.

John Braithwaite’s works Regulatory Capitalism: How it Works, Ideas for Making it Work Better and Responsive Regulation: Transcending the Deregulation Debate are also cited in the Report which discusses responsive regulation extensively.

The full report can be found on the Victorian Law Reform Commission website.

About the report

On 29 October 2014, the then Attorney-General, the Hon. Robert Clark, MP, asked the Victorian Law Reform Commission to review and report on the use of regulatory regimes to help prevent organised crime and criminal organisations entering into or operating through lawful occupations and industries. In the terms of reference, and in this report, the term ‘infiltration’ means both entering into and operating through lawful occupations and industries by organised crime.

There is a growing recognition—both in Australia and internationally—that the infiltration of lawful occupations and industries is an important strategy of organised crime groups. Alongside this, there is a growing interest in the use of regulatory regimes to deter and detect that infiltration. Under the terms of reference, the concept of infiltration involves both the entry of organised crime groups into an occupation or industry (for example, through owning or operating a business), and the operation of organised crime groups through an occupation or industry. ‘Operating through’ an occupation or industry includes the use of professional facilitators and specialist service providers.

The terms of reference do not ask the Commission to make recommendations for law reform. Instead, the Commission is asked to establish a framework of principles for assessing the risks of organised crime infiltration of occupations and industries, and for developing suitable regulatory responses to those risks.