Summary The main question this thesis poses is whether or not effectiveness of enforcement has been taken into consideration in the make-up of present day regulatory law. The subject-matter of this book has been specified in the first chapter, after a small survey of the central theme. Chapter 2 deals with the impact of considerations of effectiveness on the choices between different ways of enforcing or settling breaches of the regulatory law. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 look at the influence of considerations of effectiveness on the origins and development of three matters or phenomena of criminal liability: the application of the fault principle (chapter 3), liability for the acts of employees (chapter 4) and the liability of corporations and persons in control of management (chapter 5). These three chapters also treat the existence and application of similar phenomena in Dutch, English and German systems of administrative fining and in English and German criminal law. The last chapter, chapter 6, contains concluding observations. Three areas of law have played a special role in this thesis: the law concerning the annual accounts of corporations, Health and Safety law and Competition law. Chapter 2 is partially based on the background of the ways these areas of law have been or are being enforced. In the chapters 3, 4 and 5 the general findings concerning the said matters of liability have been set off against the existence and concrete application of these matters in those three areas of law. Chapter 2 firstly deals with the background of the choice for the criminal enforcement of regulatory law through the Dutch Economic Offences Act (Wet op de economische delicten). After that it considers the background of the enforcement through criminal law of the Dutch law concerning annual accounts, Dutch Health and Safety law and Dutch Competition law. The research shows that the historical choice for criminal law in the Dutch Economic Offences Act and in the three mentioned areas of law is mainly based on the presupposed ...