Implementing EU Pollution Control: Law and Integration

Description

Through a detailed analysis this book examines the role of law in European Union integration processes through the implementation of the EU Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control at European Level and in the UK and Germany. The book questions traditional conceptions which perceive law as the 'formal law in the books', as instrumental and as relatively autonomous in relation to its social contexts. The book also discusses in depth how the key legal obligation on the Directive, to employ 'the best available techniques', is actually implemented. This research locates the analysis of the implementation of the IPPC Directive in the wider context of current, cutting-edge political science and sociology of law debates about the role of law in EU integration processes, the nature of EU law, new modes of governance and the significance of 'law in action' for understanding legal process.

Bettina Lange is a Lecturer in Law at the School of Law, Keele University.

'Even for those without interests in EU integration or legal theory, this is a fascinating study. ... I have no doubt that this is an important contribution both to the literature on law and EU integration, law and new forms of governance and to environmental law. It is methodologically rigorous, with the qualitative empirical data being deftly deployed. Throughout the work ... there is a clarity, and a lightness of touch to the writing. ... It has enriched my appreciation of legal scholarship and as a student of environmental law I have gained from it enormously. It is scholarship of the highest order and it should be read widely beyond the academy, not least by policy makers and regulators who would as a result, be better informed about why the IPPC Directive appears to be so ineffective, at least for existing installations.' Journal of Environmental Law '... original and innovative. ... the book is very well structured, coherent and methodologically rigourous. It excellently combines both legal and sociological aspects and link in a logical succession the theoretical and the empirical analysis. It denotes an appreciable and successful effort to explain potentially complex concepts with clarity. It is a book which I really enjoyed reading and which I warmly recommend not only to legal scholars interested in theories of EU integration and environmental law, but also to those with a political and social science background as well as to policy makers.' European Law Review