Regulatory Laundering: A Taxonomy of Mechanisms

A standalone, citable reference framework setting out the taxonomy of mechanisms through which regulatory laundering operates: the transformation of non-compliance into apparent compliance through the operation of regulatory systems. It defines the phenomenon and its four-step sequence (Assess, Breach, Launder, Reset), and specifies thirteen mechanisms in four tiers (structural preconditions, framing, instruments, observed outcome), the causal chain connecting them, and the layered dependency structure that determines where remedy must be applied. Published separately so that case-specific work can cite a stable definition by DOI rather than restate it. The framework is applied to the airport sector (aviation noise at Dublin Airport and Schiphol) in a forthcoming co-authored article by A. Chochoł and G. O'Brien, which is the worked airport-sector application this reference is written to support. Further worked cross-jurisdiction examples appear in the related case-specific publications.