In this second chapter we aim to develop the broad theme concerning the tension between the claims of the resilient liberal legal approach and the drive to construct closer, more flexible forms of collaboration between government and industry. I hope that this theme helps provide a coherent structure to the inquiry in the case studies and even offers a guide to further legal developments beyond the life of this work. In broad terms, it offers a socio-legal study of economic law, an area of law perhaps somewhat under-treated in comparison with criminal law and social regulation, at least in Australia, and yet arguably still at the core of an understanding of the role of law in society (Lowe and McQueen, 1985; see also Bankowski and Mugham, 1974). Using the contrast developed in the first chapter, this second chapter examines the ways in which the liberal approach's property and trading rights take form in the high technology industries today. It then identifies the role of law in an administrative or corporatist approach. It subsequently considers why this new putative form runs into checks from liberal legality. Accordingly, it suggests a way in which the experimentation with this form of government inducement and collaboration can be reconciled with the continuing presence of the liberal form.

The first chapter has shown us that the discussion cannot proceed on the assumption that it is easy to determine how and to what extent innovation should be promoted. Nonetheless, the study also appreciates that policy implementation does not reduce itself to a mere technical exercise once the objectives are settled enough for action to be taken.