Regulation Without Easy Answers: How Boundary Judgments Exclude Cross-Domain Harms in EU Governance

Contemporary regulatory challenges increasingly transcend traditional jurisdictional boundaries (OECD, 2025) and defy conventional regulatory logic. These challenges demonstrate harms emerging from interactions between domains that regulatory frameworks treat as separate (see for example De Loë & Patterson, 2017; Lytton, 2019). This paper examines how boundary judgments (Midgley et al., 1998; Ulrich, 1994) — socially constructed decisions about what counts as part of a regulatory system and what lies outside it—exclude the cross-domain interactions from which modern harms emerge. Drawing on complexity theory (Cilliers, 2005; Dekker et al., 2011; Eppel, 2017), this paper demonstrates how regulatory boundaries that establish accountable jurisdictions and enable specialized expertise simultaneously exclude properties such as emergent properties, cascading effects, adaptive capacity, and cross-scale dynamics. Real-world examples such as the Silicon Valley Bank collapse (Metrick, 2024), the Jensen Farm listeria outbreak (Lytton, 2019), and healthcare fraud in the Netherlands (Inspectie Gezondheidszorg en Jeugd, 2024a, 2024b) serve as illustrations. These cases reveal a fundamental pattern: regulatory interventions fail not because any single domain was neglected, but because oversight remains organized around boundaries designed for contained, predictable problems whilst contemporary harms emerge from interactions across these very boundaries. When regulatory scope fails to align with system complexity, oversight gaps enable harms whilst interventions produce unintended consequences. This analysis contributes to the debate about regulatory complexity and simplification efforts, demonstrating how the boundary judgment problem represents a fundamental tension between analytical requirements of regulatory organization and systemic properties of contemporary challenges. References California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. (2023, mei). Review of DFPI’s oversight and regulation of Silicon Valley Bank. https://dfpi.ca.gov/news/reports/review-of-dfpi-oversight-and-regulation-of-silicon-valley-bank/ Cilliers, P. (2005). Complexity, Deconstruction and Relativism. Theory, Culture & Society, 22(5), 255-267. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276405058052 Dekker, S., Cilliers, P., & Hofmeyr, J. H. (2011). The complexity of failure: Implications of complexity theory for safety investigations. Safety Science, 49(6), 939-945. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2011.01.008 Den Tek, K., & Spanjers, J. (2024, augustus 5). OM niet in staat zorgfraude voldoende te bestrijden: ‘Jaarlijks wordt er voor 10 miljard gefraudeerd’. https://pointer.kro-ncrv.nl/om-niet-in-staat-zorgfraude-voldoende-te-bestrijden-jaarlijks-wordt-er-voor-10-miljard-gefraudeerd Eppel, E. (2017). Complexity thinking in public administration’s theories-in-use. Public Management Review, 19(6), 845-861. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2016.1235721 Inspectie Gezondheidszorg en Jeugd. (2024a, juni 27). Inspecties: Fraude en gesjoemel met diploma’s en opleidingen voor de zorg te makkelijk - Inspectie Gezondheidszorg en Jeugd [Nieuwsbericht]. https://www.igj.nl/actueel/nieuws/2024/06/27/inspecties-fraude-en-gesjoemel-met-diplomas-en-opleidingen-voor-de-zorg-te-makkelijk Inspectie Gezondheidszorg en Jeugd. (2024b, december 9). Inspecties: Naast goede zorg ook fraude met zorg aan mensen zonder zorgverzekering - Inspectie Gezondheidszorg en Jeugd [Nieuwsbericht]. https://www.igj.nl/actueel/nieuws/2024/12/09/inspecties-naast-goede-zorg-ook-fraude-met-zorg-aan-mensen-zonder-zorgverzekering Lytton, T. D. (2019). Outbreak: Foodborne illness and the struggle for food safety. The University of Chicago Press. Metrick, A. (2024). The Failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the Panic of 2023. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 38(1), 133-152. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.38.1.133 Midgley, G., Munlo, I., & Brown, M. (1998). The theory and practice of boundary critique: Developing housing services for older people. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 49(5), 467-478. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2600531 OECD. (2025). OECD Regulatory Policy Outlook 2025. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/56b60e39-en Ulrich, W. (1994). Critical heuristics of social planning: A new approach to practical philosophy. J. Wiley & Sons.