The phrase "lay down regulations" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to establishing rules or guidelines within a group or organization. For example: "The committee decided to lay down regulations for how to handle visitors to the facility."
That decision was taken a long time ago, implicitly, as it were, and our task now is to lay down regulations for something which is already a fact - namely the application of genetic technology to foodstuffs - and to establish a legal framework which ensures both that consumers are protected and informed and that the industry is provided with legal security.
At most they can try to advance their policies by using the president's power to lay down regulations and manage federal agencies.
It should lay down environmental regulations for debris disposal and landfill management, and regulate the use of cash-for-work programs.
They set the general mood – the moral climate in which firms operate; they lay down rules and regulations; they levy taxes; and they can choose how to deploy billions of pounds of taxpayers' money through outsourcing, public-private partnerships, and, in the case of the bailed-out banks, direct public ownership.
They rightfully distinguish between taxi operators and technology platforms, and lay down sector specific regulations for our industry.
They all lay down greatly important regulations, although not in a strictly legal sense.
Humans also unintentionally eat arthropods in other foods, and food safety regulations lay down acceptable contamination levels for different kinds of food material.
The Dodd-Frank Act made an effort to lay down general principles for regulation of swaps, but they are being gutted day by day as the financial industry lobbies over the details of Dodd-Frank's implementation.
