Book Review: European Social Security Law
| Published date | 01 September 2012 |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271201400305 |
| Author | Bernd Schulte |
| Date | 01 September 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
European Jour nal of Social Secu rity, Volume 14 (2012), No. 3 213
In my opinion, this book, which is the result of good academic research, is well
worth reading. However, I think there are two problems with it. First, it focuses on
small welfare states a nd defends them. However there is no real comparison with big
welfare states as the book lacks a separate chapter on large welfare states and their
reaction to the global changes. It is hard to accept the authors’ claim that ‘small is
beautiful’ when they have only done a marginal amount of research on large welfare
states. Secondly, three out of the four countries examined are members of the
European Economic Area (EEA). ey are thus strongly linked to one another both
economically and pol itically. is could clearly have an impact on the les sons that are
drawn from the compari son. e authors’ conclu sions should thus b e veri ed not only
by a comparison with large welfare states but also by one with small welfare states
outside the EEA.
Yves Steven s
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Belgium
Yves Stevens is Professor in Social Law at KU Leuven, Belgium. His main elds of
interest are pension law, complementary social insur ances and elder law. He is chairman
of the Occupational Pension Commission within the Belgian Control Authority on
Financial and Insu rance Products and member of the EIOPA Occupational Pensions
Stakeholder Group.
Frans Pennings, European Social Security Law (5th edition), Antwerp-Oxford-
Portland, Intersentia, 2 010, xx + 382 pp., ISBN 978–90–50 95–729–8 (hardcover)
Frans Pennings is Professor of Labour Law and Social Security Law at Utrecht
University, Professor of International Social Security Law at Tilburg University and
Visiting Professor at Gothenburg University − a nd one of the editors of this journal .He
also brings to this work his experience as a legal advisor and consultant to national
and international organ isations. Furthermore, he is a very proli c writer − see, most
recently, ‘ e Cross-border Health Care Directive: More Free Movement for Citizens
and More Coherent EU Law?’, EJSS, 13 (4).
In 1994, Frans Pennings published the rst edition of An Introduction to Social
Security Law, which set out to describe ‘the main lines in t he development of the social
dimension of Europe … with in the framework of a theory of aspects of i nternational
social se curity in general ’ (preface). e h edition of this ‘ handbook’, as the author
now calls it, now renamed European Social S ecurity Law, was published in late 2010.
Part I ‘Coordination’ is dedicated to the new Coordination Regulations (EC)
nos. 883/2004 (i.e. the Basic Regulation) and 987/2009 (i.e. the Implementation
Regulation). Chapter 1, ‘Introduction to the Concept of Coordi nation’, is followed by
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