Book Review: Health and Safety at Work: European and Comparative Perspective
| Date | 01 September 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271501700305 |
| Published date | 01 September 2015 |
| Author | Peter Andersson |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Edoardo Ales (ed.) Health and Safety at Work: European and Comparative
Perspective, Alphen aan de Rijn: Kluwer Law International, 2013, 449 pp.,
ISBN 978–90–411–4661–8 (hardcover)
Occupational health and safety law can be understood as an on-going process engaged
in creating a dynamic and eff ective legal framework that is able to cope with the ever-
changing work environment. Th
is book is a survey of the current state of this branch
of the law in Europe.
It starts off by taking an EU law perspective on occupational health and safety.1
Th
is is followed by ten chapters in which health and safety legislation is examined in
Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands
and the UK.2 In the fi nal chapter there is a synthesis using a comparative approach,
written by the editor of the book, Professor Eduardo Ales of Università degli studi di
Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale in Italy.
In the diff erent chapters, questions about basic legal concepts, the personal scope of
application, the duties of the parties, the role of workers’ representatives, enforcement
mechanisms and sanctions, are described in the ten countries. Th
is framework makes
the ideas in the chapters quite easy to follow, despite the many authors of the book.
When dealing with issues concerning the prevention and compensation of work
injuries of diff erent kinds, legal elements of both public and private law are used in
most countries. What Tovar, in the chapter on Spanish law, calls ‘a formidable and
complex array of liabilities’, actually describes the system in most of the countries that
are examined. Occupational health and safety law typically consists of administrative,
criminal, private and social security law. Finding eff ective ways to prevent ill-health of
diff erent kinds means using these legal tools in an effi
cient way. Within the common
framework of EU law, the countries have chosen diff erent ways of achieving this...
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