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Publishers Abstract:
It is common these days to argue that there is no area of national law that is insulated from the pressures that emerge from EU law. Nevertheless, while the impact of the demands of EU law on certain national policy areas has been discussed at length, the interaction of EU law with national norms that express a certain moral, ethical or cultural value has only been assessed with reference to very specific cases. And yet, it appears that these different values, which might range from drugs policy to the patentability of human cells, and from the consumption of seal meat to abortion, have something important in common, they ascribe a normative quality to a particular type of life, and typically reflect a communal, political understanding of what is good. This contribution traces how EU law deals with morally or ethically contentious issues. The first sections deconstruct the arguments that inform the different positions on the effect that EU law ought to have.
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