Book review: Sustaining Social Security in an Era of Population Aging
| DOI | 10.1177/1388262718798220 |
| Author | Marta Coimbra |
| Published date | 01 September 2018 |
| Date | 01 September 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
issues in the context of the efforts made by Member States to protect national differences. The
question is whether the anthology succeeds with regard to these aims?
The answer is both yes and no. Yes, as it is a genuine attempt to conceptualise and dig deep
when it comes to the latter stage of internal market cases. For instance Barnard’s contribution,
based on 35 cases, conceptualises how the Court treats justification arguments. Her analysis asserts
that worker protection (and protection of the host Member State’s labour market) is being margin-
alised in favour of the free movement of workers and services. On the other hand, Spaventa finds
that the Court’s recent case law on Union citizenship opens up the possibility of a broader margin
for justification where seconda ry law now points out the way. Herein lies the challenge: the
concepts differ. Is it possible to talk of conceptualising? No, as the internal market and its four
freedoms are simply too broad to conceptualise. Depending on the free movement in question,
whether it is an infringement procedure or preliminary ruling, as well as whether justification
arguments are sincere, the case law will vary.
The anthology has an original take on proportionality where Weatherill simply describes
proportionality as a diplomatic way of not embarrassing Member State s when they play the
protectionist card. Davies’ contribution is especially thought-provoking as he introduces and
discusses other aims than market integration and argues that the internal market and the globa-
lisation might not be the answer to everything. But how do we take such justifications into
account? Davies’ contribution encourages further research, especially in the light of the current
nationalistic trends.
Aims are important: if you shoot for the moon and miss, you will land among the stars. This, the
anthology has definitely done as the contributions make one think and challenge one’s perception
that the Member States are ‘alway s’ on the losing side once there is a hin drance to the free
movement. That is, after reading the anthology, clearly not the case. To summarise: the anthology
is highly recommended as it covers aspects that are not normally covered by internal market
literature.
Author biography
Jaan Paju is an Associate Professor in European Law, Faculty of Law, Stockholm University. He
teaches European Law, Public Law and Social Security Law.
John A. Turner, Sustaining Social Security in an Era of Population Aging, W.E. Upjohn Institute for
Employment Research, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 2016, 117 pages, ISBN 978-0-880-99516-0
Reviewed by: Marta Coimbra, PhD candidate at Faculty of Law, University of Coimbra, Portugal
DOI: 10.1177/1388262718798220
In his book Sustaining Social Security in an Era of Population Aging, John A. Turner identifies a
problem of sustainability in social security and presents some proposals to deal with it. Although
he notes that there is a demographic problem, in that the old-a ge dependency ratio increases
continually, he argues that the problem has more to do with the structure of the benefit formula
Book reviews 303
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