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Many governments find it challenging to set up a regulatory regime to govern rapidly developing Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) technologies empowered by Artificial Intelligence. This paper analyzes flexible regulation as a tool for assessing regulatory reforms that govern disruptive innovations such as AVs. After defining flexible regulation as regulation that gives regulated entities choices for how to comply with the regulatory objectives, this paper develops Regulatory Flexibility Indicators (RFI) for rule structure, enforcement structure, and regulatory feedback. We study AVs regulatory reforms that took place recently in the United Kingdom and South Korea, focusing on how such reforms have enhanced regulation flexibility. This paper finds that regulatory governance in the United Kingdom is more flexible than in South Korea, indicating aspects of further reforms for improving regulatory flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are key in urban climate mitigation. Since the early 2000s, a trend of urban climate governance experimentation has been observed in which cities, and especially city governments, are trialing novel governance interventions, processes, and instruments to learn from their development and implementation. This article explores the role of the government of the city of Seoul, South Korea, in a range of local experiments. It particularly focuses on the factors that contribute to the success (or lack thereof) of urban climate governance experimentation. It finds that the city's government has been successful in developing and trialing some but not all experiments and that the overall results of these are promising in certain areas of city development and use. The article also highlights some less promising results, indicating the fragile nature of urban climate governance experimentation—in both the scientific and political senses of the term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Responsiveness and accountability constitute the process of democratic representation, reinforcing each other. Responsiveness asks elected representatives to adopt policies ex ante preferred by citizens, while accountability consists of the people's ex post sanctioning of the representatives based on policy outcomes. However, the regulatory literature tends to interpret responsiveness narrowly between a regulator and regulatees: the regulator is responsive to regulatees’ compliance without considering broader public needs and preferences. Democratic regulatory responsiveness requires that the regulator should be responsive to the people, not just regulatees. We address this theoretical gap by pointing out the perils of regulatory capture and advancing John Braithwaite's idea of tripartism as a remedy. We draw out two conditions of democratic regulatory responsiveness from Philip Selznick – comprehensiveness and proactiveness. We then propose overlapping networked responsiveness based on indirect reciprocity among various stakeholders. This mechanism is the key to connecting regulatory responsiveness with accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The drying defects of refractory species are known to begin occurring in the early stages of kiln drying. Therefore, monitoring the strain distribution in wood at these early stages of drying is expected to be helpful for the reduction of possible defect development. In this study, the strain distribution of red oak specimens was progressively monitored on the tangential surface of the wood using an optical measurement system based on the digital image correlation (DIC) principle. The specimens were kiln-dried with three different initial conditions. The strain distribution maps obtained at various moisture contents clearly illustrated the progress of the strain development in the wood. In addition, strain velocities and strain ratios were calculated from the data extracted from the strain distribution maps. These parameters could be used for developing or modifying a kiln-drying schedule of a refractory species. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One reason that regulation is difficult is that repeated encounters between regulator and regulatee are rare. We suggest diplomacy as a model for reconfiguring regulatory institutions in response. Ambassadors for Regulatory Affairs who would be agents for all state regulatory agencies could be based in most large firms and small and medium enterprises that pose unusual regulatory risks. In rural towns, police would be trained as regulatory ambassadors. Just as a US Secretary of State can launch a 'diplomatic surge' in Myanmar from 2009, so regulatory surges are possible in market sectors of high risk or high opportunity. We propose strategies of indirect reciprocity as a way in which reciprocity that is only episodic in these strategic ways can promote more general responsiveness. Indirect reciprocity is reciprocity that we do not personally experience, but learn from the experience of a culture. This means that so long as we sustain regulation as a relational as opposed to a purely technocratic process, indirect reciprocity might civilize regulatory compliance in an historical process informed by the theories of Elias and Putnam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many governments swiftly decided to order nationwide lockdowns based on limited evidence that such extreme measures were effective in containing the epidemic. A growing concern is that governments were given little time to adopt effective and proportional interventions protecting citizens' lives while observing their freedom and rights. This paper examines the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in containing COVID-19, by conducting a linear regression over 108 countries, and the implication for human rights. The regression results are supported by evidence that shows the change in 10 selected countries' responding strategies and their effects as the confirmed cases increase. We found that school closures are effective in containing COVID-19 only when they are implemented along with complete contact tracing. Our findings imply that to contain COVID-19 effectively and minimize the risk of human rights abuses, governments should consider implementing prudently designed full contact tracing and school closure policies, among others. Minimizing the risk of human rights abuses should be a principle even when full contact tracing is implemented.