ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses hard and soft modes of safety regulation and their reliance on standards and guidelines developed by private organizations. It reviews these regulatory modes and illuminates the processes by which such standards and guidelines have been developed and applied by regulatory regimes and industrial safety management systems. Frequent reference is made to the contrasting regulatory approaches taken by Norway and the US to prevent major accidents in offshore oil and gas operations, to illustrate the challenges involved when regulators orchestrate rules, standards, and guidelines to improve the effectiveness of their regimes and strive to maintain trust in their relationships with industrial actors and stakeholders. The chapter shows that voluntary standards and guidelines developed by private sector organizations become an integral part of regimes and broaden the scope of administrative law and regulatory policy. It concludes with a discussion of the need for policies linking standardization to collective interests and democratic processes.
