Drawing extensively on empirical studies from the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand, John Braithwaite and Ian Ayres offer an well-argued addition to the comparative literature on government regulation. In an effort to transcend the ongoing debate between those who favour strong state regulation and those who call for deregulation, they argue that regulation does not have to proceed with an adversarial tone, nor does it have to be `soft' or `hard' to be effective.