Regulatory reforms and the quality of legislation are nowadays important issues discussed among legal scholars, legislative lawyers and politicians. In many countries and also at the level of the European Union efforts are made to improve regulations and to introduce new standards or to strengthen existing good practices. Reforms include substantial aspects (content of norms or public policies) as well as procedural or institutional aspects and the techniques and forms of regulation.
The tenth IAL congress in 2012 was held about regulatory reforms. The IAL had published the contributions from the point of view of different countries and legal systems in a book. Special focus is given on the situation in Russia where regulatory reforms meet particular challenges because the current context in many regards differs fundamentally from the Soviet past. The political, institutional, economic, technical and territorial conditions are indeed hardly comparable and require more profound and comprehensive changes than in most other countries. Furthermore, the contributions highlight the fact that reforms have to be implemented; it is not enough to merely decide them.