Can’t we just ask the regulator?

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it is well known and widely reported that regulations have become more complicated since those mad, dreamer days when Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek were the only guides to control of the market: “the rules are, there ain’t no rules” seems barbaric in its brutal simplicity — some would call that “elegant”, but there are always one or two who just can’t move on when the wind changes — and we are now mostly inured to the idea that our every action should be regulated.

Being a pragmatist, it is not the JC’s motive to take sides in the regulatory war, other than to say however regulations are framed, justice and good governance — the well-rehearsed imperative for juridical certainty — requires them to be as plain, simple and clear as possible, and where, as now, those they are not, to be capable of simple divination and unjeopardising challenge.

If the rules aren't clear, the regulator should be able to explain them and, in the case of unresolved ambiguity, make a call.

Anyone in the business will know this is the aspiration of an utter fantasist. Anglo Saxon regulators wouldn't dream of giving guidance, perhaps fearing the precedent an erroneous ruling night create, perhaps acknowledging that their own staff have no better ideas what the rules are meant to mean than anyone else.