Europeanisation of the regulation of GM products: Science versus citizens?

Book abstract:

Using a case study, this paper explores elements of the notion of legitimacy in law and policy making within the EU's regulatory regime. The paper focuses on the role of law, in particular judicial review litigation, as a legitimacy mechanism of last resort. Diffusion of the locus of policy making within a system such as the EU's may raise problems for 'classical' conceptions of mechanisms for promoting legitimacy in law and policy making. The paper concentrates on the drawbacks of such conceptions with respect to just one such mechanism: judicial review. To the extent that, in its provision for judicial review, the EU legal order has failed to take into account the nature of 'new' mechanisms of governance, such as comitology, the 'Europeanisation' of a particular policy field may mean decreased legitimacy in policy-making.