Book Review: The Role of International Social Security Standards: An In-Depth Study through the Case of Greece
| Author | Grega Strban |
| DOI | 10.1177/138826271401600306 |
| Published date | 01 September 2014 |
| Date | 01 September 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
Book Reviews
European Jour nal of Social Sec urity, Volume 16 (2014), No. 3 279
will provide a vivid picture of potential future welfare reforms to disability bene ts
systems.
Filip Bojić
Faculty of Law
University of Belgrade
Filip Bojić is a teaching assistant in Labour and Social Law in the Faculty of Law,
Univ ersit y of B elgr ade. In 201 2 he wa s awa rded the d egre e of Ma ster of Soc ial Secu rit y
Law by the Catholic University of Leuven. He is currently a PhD student at the
University of Belgrade. His interests i nclude social security law, especially t he areas of
unemployment insurance and su rvivors and old age pensions.
Maria Korda, e Role of International Social Security Standards: An in-
depth study through the case of Greece, 2013, Cambridge: Intersentia, 763 pp.,
ISBN 978–1–78068–165–8 (hardcover)
Maria Korda’s book is published as volume 32 in the very well established Social
Europe Series. It re ects the recently renewe d interest in internationa l social securit y
standards, formulated within the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and
the Council of Europe. It might be anticipated that it would be quite a challenge
to promote new (advanced) standards during a time of economic crises, when it is
evident that there is a widespread t rend towards reductions in social securit y bene ts
and an emphasis on individua l (private) responsibility for income.
A challenge for researchers has been to explore the reasons for adopting, or not
adopting, international so cial security stand ards and assembling evidence for success
(or otherwise) in their implementation. ere have been several academic publications
on these topics, mainly from Frans Pennings’ research group at the University of
Tilburg, but also from soc ial security scholars in other u niversities.1
is book comes from the Tilburg research group and comprises Maria Korda’s
doctoral thesis. is explains the rather detailed introduction which includes a
number of interesting historical insights and a developmental review of standards
(revealing why, in the EU, any general harmonisat ion of social security was considered
unnecessary),2 as well as a very systematic and precisely de ned research problem.
e main research question concerns the identi cation of obstacles to the further
1 For instance, Pen nings (2006, 2007); D ijkho (2011); Becker, Ulrich, Penn ings and Dijkho (2013).
2 e right to social secu rity was only implicitly recog nised with the inclusion of t he social policy
chapter in the pri mary EU law, mentioning the respec t of fundamental socia l rights enshrined in
the (initial) Eu ropean Social Char ter. In this context the Cha rter of fundamental r ights of the EU
(with its advanta ges and drawbacks) might a lso be mentioned.
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