Applying the Concept of Better Regulation to Internal Security Policy

• Author: Annika Talmar-Pere - Raul Narits - Aare Kasemets
• Position: LL.M., Researcher Estonian Academy of Security Sciences - Professor of Comparative Jurisprudence, University of Tartu - Head, Better Regulation and Security Research Group Estonian Academy of Security Sciences
• Pages: 35-43

35

JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL XVIII/2011

Annika Talmar-Pere Raul Narits Aare Kasemets

LL.M., Researcher Professor Head, Better Regulation and

Estonian Academy of of Comparative Jurisprudence Security Research Group

Security Sciences University of Tartu Estonian Academy of Security Sciences

Applying the Concept

of Better Regulation

to Internal Security Policy

In line with contemporary understanding of the state based on the rule of law, law is practically the only

means available to a state by which it can and is entitled to order human behaviour. At the same time, the

state as a sovereign entity is competent to decide on the area of human reality that it wishes to regulate by

legal rules. Likewise, it is for the state itself to decide what the respective (normative) order should look like

in its ideal.

This article concentrates on the ordering by rules of the internal security of a state as an absolutely

important area of practical reality. In adopting this emphasis, we are interested less in the content of the

respective legal rules than we are in the problems related to the application of the principles of better regu-

lation where the ordering of the area of internal security is concerned. The subject matter is of vital impor-

tance for Estonia as the ministries responsible for internal security and the respective legal regulation—the

so-called internal security law—are facing certain diff‌i culties in meeting the requirements set forth by the

principles of better regulation.*1

The authors are of the opinion that better regulation, or, primarily, following of the requirements of

better regulation does not replace but rather complements political decision-making. It is precisely because

of that supportive function that the link between the main instruments touching upon the area of internal

security policy in Estonia and the implementation of the respective policies has to be recognised. As indi-

cated above, this implementation is possible only by and with the aid of legal rules and other utterances of

law. Approaching the problem from that perspective, one can establish the necessary connection between

that contained in the instruments of internal security policy (i.e., concepts, measures, means of governance,

etc.), and the principles of better regulation in the legislative process at both national and EU level.*2

In this article, the essence of better regulation, the main features of internal security in the context of

the actual state of internal security of Estonia, and the implementation side of better regulation with an

emphasis on the internal security policy instruments of Estonia shall be discussed.

1 A. Kasemets. Lõhe õigusloome normide ja faktide vahel mõjude hindamise ja huvirühmade kaasamise teabe esitamisel (The

Gap between Law-making Norms and Facts (1998–2009) in the Field of Impact Assessment and Civic Engagement). –

Riigikogu Toimetised 2009 (19), pp. 104–115 (in Estonian).

2 In order to refer to problematic areas as regards rule-making in the f‌i eld of internal security, the authors use the concept of

‘selective compliance with the rules of rule-making’ throughout the text. The term in itself implies certain problems in this

area.