ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the constructs of regulatory space and regulatory regimes using tobacco control as an example. It also examines two constructs central to understanding of the regulatory endeavour: regulatory space, the initial environment a government encounters when choosing to regulate; and regulatory regimes, a government's attempt to impose order upon that space to achieve the regulatory objective. Regulatory space is the environment governments enter when choosing to regulate. Regulatory space can be complex, crowded and contested. Regulatory space invariably is occupied by a variety of state and non-state actors, and by a variety of existing formal and informal legal, economic and social controls. 'Regulatory space' and 'regulatory regimes' are parallel concepts. Like regulatory space, regulatory regimes have boundaries, contours, occupants and climate. A regulatory regime is government's attempt to impose order on that space: to harness, steer and direct actors occupying the space in support of the regulatory endeavour.
