Maria Weimer

University of Amsterdam | UVA · Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance

The legitimate role of scientific expertise in EU public decision-making on risk and technology has been subject to a fierce discussion over the last two decades. The main paradox identified is that despite the acknowledgement that its legitimating resources are limited amidst the politics of risk, EU decision-makers continue to invoke science as t...

The article analyses the problems of EU risk regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) through the lens of deliberative theories of EU law and governance, such as deliberative supranationalism and experimentalist governance. Previous research had suggested that the GMO issue is not conductive to deliberation within EU institutions because...

Against a backdrop of rapidly evolving crisis management in the European financial and sovereign debt crisis this essay aims both to explore and to re-consider the role of law in the EU integration process: What did law accomplish? Where did it fail? What is law going to endure? What kind of future can it envisage? The essay traces back the evoluti...

This book offers a topical inquiry into the legal and political limits of European Union regulation in the field of risk and new technologies surrounded by techno-scientific complexity, uncertainty, and societal contestation. It uses agricultural biotechnology as a paradigmatic example to illustrate the complex intersection between environmental, p...

This article argues in favour of broadening the trade and environment debate in the World Trade Organization (WTO) to include a developmental perspective. WTO litigation involving environmental regulation touches upon the issue of global justice and the power asymmetries structurally embedded in the global economy. The recognition of the WTO as a l...

The Origins of “Risk” as an Idea and the Future of Risk Regulation - Volume 8 Issue 1 - Maria WEIMER

This collective volume focuses on a specific form of co-production, namely the co-production of EU expert and executive power. In this way, we aim to contribute to the discussion about the legitimacy of the exercise of EU executive power in an ever growing policy field, namely in EU regulation of health and environmental risks. In other words, we f...

Introduction to the Special Issue on Regulating New and Emerging Technologies

Technological innovations are crucial drivers of economic, social, and environmental progress. While innovations lead the evolution of our societies and permeate all domains of human life, they also pose significant risks both to humans and the environment. Law and regulation are expected to enable innovation, while at the same time protecting soci...

This paper argues in favor of broadening the trade and environment debate in the WTO to include a developmental perspective. It takes the US-Tuna II dispute between the United Sates and Mexico as an example to show the complex intertwinement between economic, environmental and developmental issues. WTO litigation involving environmental regulation...

In a climate of growing disenchantment with immigration and free movement in the EU, this collection of policy papers addresses the themes of inclusion and exclusion in the EU. A number of experts explore legal and political aspects of physical and social exclusion of vulnerable groups in the EU. The collection deals with a variety of topics includ...

This paper explores how far experimentalist features of the EU's internal food safety governance regime are being extended to the Union's external governance of food safety. Hence, it analyses whether and how far the Union's engagement with both third countries and global institutions displays features of experimentalism. Our analysis shows that wh...

The EU authorization process of the insect-resistant maize 1507, branded by its developer company Pioneer-DuPont as 'Hercules', is perhaps the most interesting and emblematic example of the current regulatory crisis of GMO regulation in Europe. 1 The case is particularly controversial, because it concerns the first risk assessment regarding the cul...

The EU authorization process of the insect-resistant maize 1507, branded by its developer company Pioneer-DuPont as ‘Herculex’, is perhaps the most interesting and emblematic example of the current regulatory crisis of GMO regulation in Europe. The case is particularly controversial, because it concerns the first risk assessment regarding the culti...

Reality is complex, and often does not lend itself to generalization or simplifying explanations. Yet at the same time, explaining reality often requires the shaping of notions and concepts of it through generalization and the reduction of complexity. This tension between complexity and particularity on the one hand and generalization and the searc...

This chapter analyzes the difficulties of creating a viable legal framework for ‘cloned food’ in the EU combining a legal perspective with insights from the interdisciplinary research on risk governance. Animal cloning offers an instructive example for the challenges of designing regulatory frameworks for scientific innovations in the EU, especiall...

Reality is complex, and often does not lend itself to generalization or simplifying explanations. Yet at the same time, explaining reality often requires the shaping of notions and concepts of it through generalization and the reduction of complexity. This tension between complexity and particularity on the one hand and generalization and the searc...

Case Note on Court of Justice of the European Union, Joined Cases C-58/10 to C-68/10 Monsanto Sas and Others.

This paper analyzes the Commission proposal to grant EU Member States more freedom to restrict or ban the cultivation of GMOs on their territory. It argues that this new "flexible" approach to GMO cultivation not only raises concerns from the point of view of EU internal market law, but also is unlikely to solve the problem of Member States’ opposi...

In this article I describe and analyse the current regulatory developments at EU level concerning the marketing of foods produced from cloned animals. As they are on the verge of commercialisation in countries outside the EU, especially in the United States, foods from cloned animals are likely to reach the European consumers in the foreseeable fut...

In this paper, I endeavour to examine concrete challenges, which arise with regard to implementation of the precautionary principle in the field of European Community regulation of GMOs. Developed by the European Courts into a general legal principle, precaution requires EU regulators to strike a balance between scientific and political legitimacy...

After genetically modified organisms and nanotechnology, EU food regulators are currently facing the challenge of choosing an appropriate policy approach towards animal cloning for food supply. While different regulatory options are being discussed, the ultimate choice of the EU is likely to have ramifications for EU’s compliance with the internat...

In this paper I analyse the role that the precautionary principle plays in ensuring legitimacy in the EU authorisation regime for GMOs by using the ‘governance’ perspective as analytical frame. The idea of legitimacy, as embodied in this principle, requires creating a balance between scientific and political legitimacy in the decision-making of aut...