European Regulation of Consumer Product Safety by Christopher Hodges
| Published date | 01 September 2006 |
| Author | Hans‐W. Micklitz |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.2006.00614.x |
| Date | 01 September 2006 |
REVIEWS
Christopher Hodges,European Regulation of Consumer Product Safety,
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 334pp, hb d60.00.
There haslong been a need for abook like this. Itstarts by analysingsector speci¢c
EU regulation on medicinal products, new approach products, and the common
regime for biocides, cosmetics, tobacco and general consumer products.The aim
of the book is to investigate whether and towhat extent it is feasible to merge this
sector speci¢c regulation into one coherent horizontal approach.
At ¢rstsight the workseems to be written for product safety specialists, but the
morethe analysis progressesthe more it becomes clear thatthe author is also writ-
ing for those interested in far-reaching theoretical questions about the role and
functionof product safety(ie social) regulation and its relationshipto market inte-
gration. In essence, Hodges pleads for a European Community where product
safety regulation is freed from the constitutional base found in Article 95 ETon
the free movement of goods. He concludes: ‘The entire purpose and operation of
the legislation would come into e¡ective focus if the legislation could be based
squarely on its realsocial purpose, which is to maintain the safetyof the European
populace.’ (p 262).
The book does not deal with EC product liability regulation,nor does it look
at the origins of EC product safety regulation, which lie partly in international
regulation adopted by the WHO, FAOand UNEP and partly i nUS regul ation,i n
particular with regard to biocides and general consumer goods. However, in the
introductorychapter Hodges examines the theoretical aspects of regulation which
encompass, in particular, US debates in legal theory and political science which
have found their European counterpart in Majone’s research on the‘Rise of the
Regulatory State’ (see, in particular, Regulating Europe (Routledge, 1996)).Whilst
he uses Asch’s andViscusi’s ¢ndings onthe US product safety regulation ^ which
rely more on idealism thanon empirical analysis ^ as a blueprint for the detailed
analysis of EC product safety regulation, Hodges’plea fora one single European
product safety agency is rooted in Majone’s understanding of agencies as the
fourth branch of government.
However, it takes some time before the theoretical implications set out in the
introductory chapter, and the ¢ndings out of the detai led analysis of EC product
safety regulation in the ‘Theoretical Issues and Conclusions’ are tied together. In
between, the reader is invited in Part One to study the rise of sector speci¢c Eur-
opean product safety regulation in the aftermath of the white paper on comple-
tion of the internal market. It is here that the constitutional limits of product
safety regulation ^ its market bound logic which ties the realisation of product
safety regulationto market integration in a‘piggyback’procedure ^ becomes clear
(see Micklitz,‘Perspectives on a European Directive on the Safety of Technical
rThe Modern LawReview Limited 2006
Published by BlackwellPublishing, 9600 Garsington Road,Oxford OX4 2DQ,UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
(2006) 69(5)MLR 855^868
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