Lee, M; (2016) GMOs in the internal market: new legislation on national flexibility. The Modern Law Review , 79 (2) pp. 317-340. 10.1111/1468-2230.12182.

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Abstract

GMOs have shone the bright light of disagreement on features of EU administration and risk regulation that might otherwise have remained in the shadows. In the case of GMOs, risk assessment has not provided stable ‘facts’ about the world, and comitology has not provided a politically legitimate or effective solution. In an area where until now national autonomy has been tenaciously resisted, new EU legislation provides Member States with ‘flexibility to decide whether or not they wish to cultivate GMOs on their territory’. This forces attention on to the subtle, and not so subtle, ways in which internal market law constrains political actors in the EU. But it is similarly suggestive of how political actors might contribute to the evolution of the internal market. This article also reflects on which lessons from the past have been addressed in the new legislation. Whilst it takes somewhat seriously the politics of GMOs, the new legislation simultaneously reinforces some of the limitations of our dominant models for generating knowledge, including the EU’s problematic dichotomy between facts and values, risk assessment and risk management

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