Book Review: European Social Security Law, 6th Edition
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271501700406 |
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
European Jour nal of Social Sec urity, Volume 17 (2015), No. 4 497
BOOK REVIEWS
Frans Pennings, European Social Security Law, 6th edition, Cambridge, Antwerp
and Portland: Intersent ia, 2015, 383 pages, ISBN 978-1-78068-276-1
A er ve years, a new edition of Frans Penn ings’ textbook on European So cial Securit y
Law has been published. It retraces the recent developments without modif ying the
fundamental concept of the book as such. Whereas t he 5th edition had the task of
pointing out and clarifying the new r ules on social security coordination accordi ng
to regulation 883/2004, wh ich had just replaced the former Regulation 1408/71, the
6th edition can already refer to solid insig hts from the academic debate on the new
system.
e focus of the book is on the ru les for the coordination of social secur ity bene ts.
However, it is not limited to this issue, althoug h other subjects that are covered
(e.g. primary law) are analysed in terms of their relevance for, and their relation to,
coordination. Social a ssistance and social ser vices are not covered. e starting point,
re ecting the initia l aims and mea ning of coordination under the rst regulation
3/58, is the free movement of workers.
Pennings shows that a national approach to social security law is designed to
hinder migration by leading to t he loss of social secur ity rights. Reference is made
to con icts of law and the role of rules of con ict, both in a un ilateral and in a
multilateral context, and to the aims of the coordination rules, i.e. solv ing con ic ts
of law, assuring equal treatment, the addition of entitlement periods and t he export
of bene ts. ere are frequent references to the principle of territoria lity although, in
the reviewer’s opinion, this is not entirely convi ncing. us, Pennings claims that the
social secur ity law of a state only applies to ‘events, which occ ur within t he national
borders of the state in question’. However, national – not just supranational – law
includes rules on the post ing of workers, which make it clear that posted workers are
covered by the law of their country of origin. In this way, the scope of application of
the law of the country of orig in extends beyond its borders.
e legal backg round of the coordination rules is set out in detail . ree chapters
are devoted to the personal and materia l scope of the coordination regu lation and
the determination of the applicable legislation in cross-border cases. ey re ect the
broadening of the personal scope from economica lly active to al l persons covered
by the social security scheme of an EU Member State, showing the close link to
Regulation 1231/2010 which leads to the inclusion of third-country nationals (in
addition to refugees and stateless p ersons who had been covered before).
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