Book Review: Between Soft and Hard Law. The Impact of International Social Security Standards on National Social Security Law
| DOI | 10.1177/138826270600800108 |
| Author | Paul Schoukens |
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Frans Pennings (ed.), Between Soft and Hard Law. The Impact of International Social
Security Standards on National Social Security Law, The Hague, Kluwer Law
International, 2006, 320pp., ISBN 90-411-2491-8
At long last international social security standards are brought to our attention. This
part of social security harmonisation, focusing upon the enactment of minimum
standards, is neither well known to practitioners nor to academics in the field of social
protection. Only a selected group of legal experts, who are active in the circle of the
International Labour Organisation and the Council of Europe, fully grasp the techniques
of minimum standard setting. It is indeed surprising that, in a world that aims to
become a global market, so little is known about these standards. Many governments
are confronted with social security models that are recommended to them by
international organisations such as the World Bank and the IMF, which are often in
sharp contrast to the social guarantees proclaimed by the ILO. Even the European
Union, having started to reflect on the concrete contents of the ‘European Social
Model’ through its Open method of Co-ordination, does not make a single reference to
international social security standards.
What is unknown is unloved. By focusing upon the international standards in the
field of social security, the contributors to this publication counter this tendency.
Somewhat contrary to what the title suggests, the ambition remains limited, some
would say too modest, but at the end it proves to be a realistic approach. First of all,
the contributors focus on the social security standards that have been enacted by the
International Labour Organisation. Hence, the European Social Charter and the Code of
Social Security, both developed by the Council of Europe, are not considered, although
they are referred to in the general overview of international treaties. That these
documents have a smaller impact to those of the ILO, is a remarkable statement that I
would wish to challenge. As will become clear later, it is very difficult to measure the
impact of these instruments, even when the analysis is a legal one.
As well as limiting themselves to the ambit of the ILO, the contributors focus on
the possible impact of such international standards upon national social security
systems. Do they have any impact at all and how does this impact take place in
practice? The contributors restrict themselves to legal analysis, leaving aside any
attempt to measure the policy impact that such instruments could have. In order to
provide this analysis, the contributors opt for a structure consisting of individual
reports for each country, written by national social security experts. It is somewhat
regrettable that this is restricted to the national testimonies of some European
countries – the Netherlands (by Frans Pennings), Germany (by Bernd Schulte), the UK
(by Simon Roberts), France (by Francis Kessler and Jean-Philippe Lhernoud) and
Spain (by Christina Sa
´nchez-Rodas Navarro and Andre
´s Rodrı
´guez Benot). The
justification that these are the most developed social security systems bound by ILO
standards is not fully convincing. Is it not the ambition of the ILO-instruments, or to
Book Reviews
3º proef
European Journal of Social Security, Volume 8 (2006), No. 1 117
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