Book Review: Research Handbook on European Social Security Law
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271601800406 |
| Published date | 01 December 2016 |
| Date | 01 December 2016 |
| Author | Stamatia Devetzí |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
European Jour nal of Social Sec urity, Volume 18 (2016), No. 4 413
Frans Pennings and Gijsbert Vonk (eds.), Research Handbook on European Social
Security Law, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015, 591 pp., ISBN 978–1–
78254–732–7
is research handbook brings together a number of themes, wh ich are of major
importance for study ing European social secu rity law. Without simply describing the
variety of ru les that comprise what we call ‘European soc ial security law’, it sets out as
its main goal to high light issues that are fundamental or controversial and therefore
relevant to furt her research.
e book brings together the va rious themes under ve c ategories, which constitute
the ve parts of the book : 1) human rig hts and social security, 2) minimum sta ndards
in social secu rity and the principle of equal treatment, 3) social s ecurity protection of
mobile persons and migra nts, 4) European social securit y law in a global context, and
5) its future. Twenty-four contributors – all of them well-known exp erts on European
social secur ity law – approach these subjects from di erent perspectives.
e rst part of t he book o ers an introduction to t he development and mea ning
of social securit y as a human right, discusses the l ink between citizenship and socia l
security and interrogates the impact of the Europea n Convention of Human rights
on social secur ity. Furthermore, the approaches adopted by t he European Cour t of
Human Rights, t he European Commit tee on Social Rig hts and the European Court
of Justice are compared. In the last chapter of this part , the relationship between the
ECHR and the EU is discussed by asking what the consequences of the (possible)
accession of the EU to the ECHR would be for socia l security.
e second part of the book looks more closely at mini mum standards in social
security, rst in the framework of the ILO, and then at t he Council of Europe. In
EU law there are hardly any minimum standards; instead so law applies. Separate
attention is given to the principle of equal t reatment – three chapters are dedicated to
this ‘standard w ithin its own right’.
In the third par t of the book, questions regarding the protection of migrant
persons and the EU free movement provisions are add ressed . Di erent aspects, such
as the term ‘principle’ in coordination law, the relationship between coordi nation
and labour law, and the question of how persons wit h low incomes are a ected by
European law, are discussed . Attention is also focused on third-country nat ionals,
students and persons in sea rch of cross-border health care. e fourth part foc uses on
the EU’s promotion of social protection in t he world and discusses the possible role of
European social security law as a ‘source of inspiration’ for other parts of the world.
e last part of the book consists of a na l chapter which re ects upon the future of
European socia l security law.
e book succeeds in provid ing in-depth ana lyses, on the one hand, a nd suggestions
for new approaches, on the other. It provides an outline of open questions a nd depicts
trends. Despite the large number of contributions a nd the variety of subjects, there is a
conceptual unit y to the book, although t he reader will sometimes mi ss the big picture.
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