EU Environmental Law: Challenges, Change and Decision‐Making by Maria Lee
| Published date | 01 September 2006 |
| Date | 01 September 2006 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2006.614_1.x |
| Author | Carolyn Abbot |
ulation, like its American counterpart, is based on impressionistic knowledge. I
would argue that theEuropean Commission has made e¡orts to establish a Eur-
opean-wide accident surveillance system which should in theory allow one to
¢nd out the degree to which accidents result from defective products. However,
these e¡orts failed, because of the resistance of countries like Germany which has
always challenged the idea that such a system could provide useful results. All in
all there is no usable data available, at least not on a quantitative basis. Hodges
concludes with an appendix in which he brings together product related data
from the United Kingdom. However, the data do not much reach beyond what
is known from previous research.That is why the question remains: why do the
European Community and the Member States (as well as the US) advocate for
productsafety legislation and enforcement without feeling the need to establish a
data collection system, in whateverform? Hodges multi-facettedbook has set this
rather philosophical question aside (p 235). However, the lack of an answer (is
there one ?) in no way reduces the value of the book. European Regulation of Con-
sumer Product Safety clearly demonstrates that the European Community, as it has
in contract law (p189),has reached a pointwhere consistencyis required.This calls
for a concept of how European product safety should be regulated. If the Eur-
opean Commission is ever ready to look beyond productcategories and establish
a coherent horizontal approach on European product safety regulation, Hodges’
analysis provides a useful template foraction.
Hans-W. Micklitz
n
Maria L ee,EU Environmental Law: Challenges, Change and Decision-
Making,Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2004, xxxix þ275pp, pb d25.00.
Since its inception, the EU has been instrumental in the development of Eur-
opean-wide environmental law andpolicy. For nearly half a decade, it has legis-
lated on a diverse rangeof environmental issues including climatechange, habitat
protection, producer responsibility and industrial pollution. But the position of
the EU as an‘environmental player’ has been and continues to be the subject of
sustained criticism. Concerns relating to the e¡ectiveness and e⁄ciency of EU
environmental regulation, not to mention the legality (or not) of the EU’s com-
petence in the environmental sphere, have all had a considerable impact on its
perceived legitimacy. In EU Environmental Law: Challenges, Change and Decision-
Maki ng, Lee provides an excellent and thought-provoking appraisal of three of
the main categories of challenge faced in EU environmental law, each of which
implicates democratic legitimacy in its ownway: the challenge from democracy,
the challenge from the market and the challenge from the‘implementation’ gap
Throughout the book, Lee examines a range of European policy and legislative
initiatives which endeavour to address these three challenges. Topics discussed
include the management and regulationof risk ^ which, although central to con-
n
Universityof Bamberg.
Reviews
858 rThe Modern LawReview Limited 2006
(2006) 69(5)MLR 855^868
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