Regulating Risks in the European Union : The Co-production of Expert and Executive Power

A growing body of EU law and regulation is preoccupied with the protection of EU citizens from health and environmental risks. Which chemicals are safe and should be allowed on the market? How should the EU respond to public health emergencies, such as Ebola and other infectious diseases? Regulatory responses to these questions confront deep uncertainty, limited knowledge and societal contestation. In a time where the use of scientific expertise in EU policy-making is particularly contested, this book offers a timely contribution to both the academic and policy debate on the role of specialised expertise in EU public decision-making on risk and technology as well as on its intertwinement with executive power. It draws on insights from law, governance, political sciences, and science and technology studies, bringing together leading scholars in this field. Contributions are drawn together by a shared theoretical perspective, namely by their use of co-production as an analytical lens to study the intricate interplay between techno-scientific expertise and EU executive power. By so doing, this collection produces highly original insights into the development of the EU administrative state, as well as into the role of regulatory science in its construction. This book will be useful to scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers working on risk regulation and the role of expertise in public decision-making. Acknowledgements Table of Contents Contributors Table of Cases Table of Legislation 1 Regulating Risks in the European Union: The Co-production of Expert and Executive Power I. Introduction II. Risk Regulation and Executive Power in the EU III. Policy-relevant Expertise in the EU, between Epistemic and Political Authority IV. Co-production as an Analytical Lens V. The Co-production of EU Expert and Executive Power VI. Broadening the Debate-Rethinking EU Constitutionalism Part 1: Theoretical Perspectives 2 Constitutions of Modernity: Science, Risk and Governable Subjects I. Two Faces of Risk Governance II. Risk and European Integration: A Co-productionist View III. Delegation IV. Harmonisation V. Subsidiarity VI. The Constitutional Place of Science in EU Governance VII. Conclusion 3 Expert Executive Power, Administrative Constitutionalism and Co-production: Why They Matter I. Introduction II. Expert Executive Power and Administrative Constitutionalism and the EU III. Goshawks and Expertise IV. Conclusion Part 2: Practices of Co-production 4 Recombinant Regulation: EU Executive Power and Expertise in Responding to Synthetic Biology I. Introduction II. Synthetic Biology III. Non-legislation and the Implementation of Existing Regulation IV. An Emerging "Problem" and the Role of Technical Working Groups V. Regulatory Stability and the Deferral of Socio-ethical Deliberation 5 Defining the Invisible: Between Soft Norms and Hard Realities in the European Regulation of Nanotechnologies I. Introduction II. The Legitimacy Dimension of Co-production III. Defining the Invisible: Walking a Tightrope IV. The Definition"s Impact: Analysing its Two Dimensions V. Putting the Recommendation"s Legitimacy to the Test VI. Conclusion 6 Mixing EU Security and Public Health Expertise in the Health Threats Decision I. Introduction II. Reconfiguring Public Health: Globalisation and Security III. The Health Threats Decision: From "Public Health" to "Health Security" IV. Conclusion 7 Constituting Public Health Surveillance in Twenty-first Century Europe I. Introduction II. Public Health Surveillance: A Powerful International Concept III. The Empirical, Understudied, Diversity of Surveillance IV. Changing Justifications of Surveillance V. Europeanisation: Health Security and State Security VI. Conclusions: Surveying Surveillance 8 Behavioural Expertise and Regulatory Power in Europe I. Introduction1 II. Behavioural Expertise in EU Policy-making and Regulation III. The European "Ecosystem of Expertise": Institutional Voids IV. Combining Epistemic and Political Authority V. Reframing Regulation VI. Conclusions Part 3: Rethinking Constitutionalism: Legitimacy and Accountability 9 Expertise as Justification: The Contested Legitimation of the EU "Risk Administration" I. Introduction II. Shifting Sands-Administrative Legitimation Between Control and Deliberation III. Administrative Legitimation and GMO Authorisations: The Long Tale of Herculex and Amflora IV. Judicial Responses V. Conclusions 10 Evolving Conceptions of Science and Legitimacy: Insights from American Administrative Law I. Introduction II. Early Case Law on Risk Regulation and the Breakdown of the Classical Account III. Early Supreme Court Cases on Risk Regulation IV. State Farm and Chevron V. Risk Regulation in the Courts after Chevron VI. A Retreat to the Classical Approach? VII. Conclusion 11 Accountability and Co-production beyond Courts: The Role of the European Ombudsman I. Introduction II. Co-production and Accountability in EU Governance III. The EO as a Forum for Accountability IV. Knowledge and Co-production in EO Decisions V. Conclusions Bibliography Index