| Popis: |
Legal commentary on the World Trade Organization Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) commonly portrays the regime as a constraint on, and threat to, domestic policy-making. EU adminlstrators, by contrast, generally consider international legal obligations peripheral to their work. This thesis seeks to understand these differing perceptims and ascertain the real influence of the Agreement on domestic food regulations. Part I reviews the legal literature, to better understand the assumptions underlying the prevailing characterisation of the SPS regime. It identifies a dominant paradigm fur analysing the Agreement, one fixated on jurisprudence, predominantly interested in the Agreement's significance for state sovereignty, and informed by the belief that law directly regulates state behaviour. Comrrentators' expectation of constraint flow from this analytical approach, but generally lack empirical foundation. With reference to EU fuod policy, Part II reassesses assumptions about the Agreement. It challenges the prominent criticism that the Agreement inspires regulations based on science and neglecting other vahJ!s, demonstrating that EU SPS measures remain responsive to social values in policy areas vulnerable to WTO challenge. |
