Legal Basis for Regulatory Sandboxes: Key Aspects for a Coherent Theoretical and Practical Framework

The legal basis for the regulatory sandbox sets up and regulates this advanced kind of experimentation tool used to find better regulation for new technologies. When defining the legal basis for a regulatory sandbox, any policymaker needs to consider several issues to ensure legality and the rule of law, to protect fundamental rights and democratic systems, but also to adopt appropriate and effective regulation for new technologies. The aim of this paper is to address some of these issues in relation to the legal basis of the RS, in terms of the choice of the regulatory instrument, its content and its effectiveness. The paper provides an overview of the legal basis of relevant regulatory sandboxes in the European area, touching upon the aspects that most directly affect the characteristics of this scheme. In particular, the analysis focuses on the features that define the models of regulatory sandboxes, such as purpose, scope, context, and the subjects involved (public authorities entrusted with management and supervision), their powers and tasks, the possibility of granting a relaxation of existing legal 30 rules, the existing limits and constraints on their discretionary powers, and the consequences of the experimentation.