Private sector law will be the ‘answer to globalisation’
Bernd van der Meulen, professor of law and governance at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, believes the enforcement of laws controlling foodstuff supply in Europe will become harder unless regulators adopt procedures and standards developed by the private sector.
"Private regulation may be the legal answer to globalisation," said van der Meulen. "I see future growth in the impact of private standards." Van der Meulen is also a council member of the European Food Law Association, which is holding a conference on private food law in Amsterdam on September 1617.
He said the private sector Global Food Safety Initiative, which is attempting to harmonise food safety schemes such as the British Retail Consortium Global Standard, International Food Standard and Safe Quality Food scheme, etc, had been far more effective than the United Nation's Codex Alimentarius in harmonising national standards.
"The Codex Alimentarius has been trying to harmonise food law for half a century, while the private sector is achieving a level of international standardisation and harmonisation in a decade, which already reaches a point that Codex will never achieve."
However, van der Meulen also raised the prospect of global trade being fulfilled by international suppliers that were able to meet the requirements of those global standards. Suppliers that could not meet these standards might be restricted to serving their local national markets, which would be a cause for concern.
"[Private standards] often frame the content [of public law in the EU] in terms of due diligence, so private regulation is not much more than a form of ensuring compliance," said Van der Meulen." But, on a global scale things are quite different.
"Private regulation does much more than just implementing public law requirements," said van der Meulen. "It is raising the standards worldwide and it requires producers [overseas] to comply with standards that are not in their legislation."
The World Trade Organisation has expressed concerns that such standards might be used unfairly as a barrier to international trade; in particular keeping producers from some developing countries out of lucrative EU markets.
