This project aims to investigate the foundations of regulation, the historical processes of consolidation of the regulatory state, its institutional structure, and the constitutional vocations of the government related to the performance of regulatory functions, such as the provision of public services, the exercise of sanctioning activities, and their impacts on the incentives of public and private players in the economy, the treatment of market failures and natural monopolies, the management of risks in a complex society, governance, and the definition of good regulatory practices. The main purpose of this project is to understand and propose changes in the mechanisms that structure the regulatory state, as well as in the governance mechanisms and incentive systems created by sanctioning strategies (administrative and criminal) aimed at the efficient achievement of relevant economic and social objectives. 

The first objective of this project is to produce theoretical and empirical knowledge about the structure and decision-making process of the institutions considered separately and in their interactions with other institutions that exercise regulatory functions or control regulatory decisions. These analyses can take place from a local, international, or multi-level perspective. Moreover, research is being carried out along this line to identify, explain, and analyze variables that affect the performance of regulatory institutions, their decision-making process, and the decision-making of regulatory options control bodies. In addition, this line aims to develop studies on topics such as the epistemic limitations and capacities of decision-makers, mechanisms for measuring quality and evaluating regulatory decisions, knowledge of regulatory structures that affect regulatory choices, the influences of the structural indeterminacy of the legal system on regulation, the democratic legitimacy of decisions in the regulatory state, uncertainties related to consequentialist reasoning, strategic behavior, and political aspects of regulatory decision, control of regulatory decisions and regulatory limits, and incentives for the structuring and operation of regulatory structures. This project is eminently interdisciplinary, insofar as it seeks to investigate issues and propose solutions to regulatory challenges based on elements of the theory of Law (such as the exploration of issues related to regulatory structures and theories of justification of decisions) and institutional analyses. Furthermore, this structuring project does not neglect an important assumption for carrying out comparative institutional analyses, considered fundamental for debates about the legitimacy of regulatory choices and about the intensity of control (especially judicial) of regulatory options: the knowledge of the institutional capacities not only of regulatory entities, but also of the other institutions that may interact with them in spaces where competencies are uncertain, namely controlling entities (such as the accounting courts) and institutions of the justice system. 

This project has three main missions: (i) to produce and disseminate knowledge about the country's regulatory activity; (ii) to contribute to the improvement of the national regulatory environment; and (iii) to promote good regulatory practices. For this purpose, the project brings together empirical research, mainly of a quantitative nature, on regulatory topics related to the two lines of research of the PPGD, such as (i) Participation mechanisms (hearings and public consultations) of federal regulatory agencies, (ii) regulatory production of regulatory bodies, (iii) political/legislative control over regulatory agencies, and (iv) external control over regulatory agencies. The Regulation in Numbers also builds its own databases on the topics listed above, allowing the analysis of information scattered among the several federal regulatory agencies.

As Disciplinas Estruturantes do Mestrado desta linha de pesquisa são:

• Teoria do Estado Regulador;
• Constitucionalismo de Realidade: Direito e Instituições no Brasil Pós Crise Política;
• Dimensões do Estado de Direito e Princípios da Administração Pública; 
• Dinâmica da Regulação Administrativa; 
• Reflexos Penais da Regulação Econômica; 
• Regulação e Concessões em Infraestrutura; 
• Regulação Internacional; 
• Serviços Públicos e sua Regulação; e
• Teoria da Regulação.
   

As Disciplinas Estruturantes do Doutorado desta linha de pesquisa são:

• Teoria das Estruturas Regulatórias;
• A Regulação dos Poderes: Favores, Decisões e Adaptações;
• Administrative State: A Origem e a Evolução da Função e Governança Regulatória;
• Análise Empírica em Estudos sobre Regulação; 
• Controle da Administração Pública; 
• Parcerias de Investimentos entre os Setores Público e Privado: Estruturas Jurídicas, Regulação e Controle Externo; 
• Racionalidade, Incerteza e Decisão Regulatória; 
• Regulação e Sistema de Justiça Penal; 
• Separação de Poderes: Direito, Política e Desenho Institucional;  
• Tópicos de Aprofundamento em Regulação Internacional; e
• Transformações do Direito Público.