The Regulation of Inchoate Technologies

Daniel Gervais

This Essay discusses why and how certain technologies defeat regulatory interventions. I then examine a number of major regulatory pitfalls and how they apply to the inchoate technologies, namely: the “law” of unintended consequences, the politicizing of regulatory interventions, costs, legacy regulation, asymmetric regulation and the role that the notion of efficiency is given in justifying regulatory impulses. I then consider whether the regulation of inchoate technologies should take account of, and may in fact be undesirable because, some technologies (or the use thereof) tend to self-regulate. Finally, I suggest lessons that can be drawn from this analysis and present the structure of a workable model to regulate inchoate technologies.