Book Review: Pharmaceutical Medicine, Biotechnology, and European Law
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X0100800404 |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
8 MJ 4 (2001) 397
Book Reviews
Richard Goldberg and Julian Lonbay (eds.), Pharmaceutical Medicine,
Biotechnology, and European Law, Cambridge University Press, 2000,
xxxv + 241 pages, hardcover.
This book is a compilation of essays on some of the complex issues emerging from
rapid developments in pharmaceutical medicine, biotechnology and European
Community law. The essays were written by distinguished European legal practitioners
and academics whose expertise ranges across diverging fields such as intellectual
property law, product liability law, European law, and private international law, to
jurisprudence and bioethics.
The following writers contributed: Deryck Beyleveld (Professor of Jurisprudence at the
University of Sheffield), Roger Brownsword, (Professor of Law at the University of
Sheffield), William Cornish (Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law at
Cambridge), Antoine Cuvillier (Administrator Legal Affairs at the European Medicines
Evaluation Agency), Ian Dodds-Smith (Head of the Health Care Group at CMS
Cameron McKenna), Richard Goldberg (Solicitor and Lecturer in Law at the University
of Birmingham), Leigh Hancher (Professor of European Law at the Catholic University
of Brabant, Tilburg), Jonathan Harris (Reader in Law at the University of Nottingham),
Belinda Isaac (Solicitor and partner at Arnander Irvine and Zietman), Margaret
Llewelyn (Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Sheffield) and Julian Lonbay
(Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Birmingham). From the list of contributors
it is clear that a decidedly English slant may be expected in the essays, which is in fact
the case.
The essays are grouped under four themes: free movement of goods and persons,
competition and intellectual property; European drug regulation; biotechnology; and
product liability and transnational health care litigation.
The first four essays (by Cornish, Isaac, Lonbay and Hancher) review European
competition and intellectual property law, and the impact of European law on the free
movement of goods and persons.
I discuss Julian Lonbay’s essay first, as it deals with a topic which is not covered by the
other contributors, namely the free movement of people (patients, medical and
pharmaceutical professionals) within the European Community (EC) health care sector.
He discusses the development of EC law and policy and the attempts to liberate people
from national boundaries. The problems in this field are numerous, and they are brought
about by differences in the structure of the relevant professions, in the education and
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