ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that using ‘regulatory character’ as a conceptual framework to understand the impact of context on reform provides a way forward. It explores regulatory character in a Thai context. Regulatory character is thus a series of interactions essential to understanding the generation of regulations and the nature of regulatory compliance. The chapter also argues that regulatory character could be viewed as a distillation of economic, political and cultural history. The grid dimension explores the nature of authority and legitimation of behaviour within a regulatory context and in particular the interplay between norms and laws. Cultural theory can address Asian legal scholars’ concerns around the use of the concept of culture as a tool to ‘orientalize’ behaviour. Even with the changes to cultural theory to suit a regulatory context, undertaking an analysis predicated on culture alone would simply reverse the bias of economic and political approaches.
