ABSTRACT
While in Law 1.0 it might be right to say that the general principles are either unexamined or that they are simply assumed to be legitimate, no such exemption from scrutiny, no such assumption, is made in Law 2.0 or Law 3.0. Generally speaking, the legitimacy of the regulators’ purposes or policies is a matter for active debate – or, at any rate, this is so where we are dealing with public regulators. At the first and most important tier, regulators have a ‘stewardship’ responsibility for maintaining the preconditions for human social existence, for any kind of human social community. Given that the regulatory instruments available in Law 3.0 promise to be more effective than ever, we need to be clear about which regulatory purposes and positions are legitimate. In the first instance, regulators should take steps to protect and preserve the natural ecosystem for human life.
