Legal Aspects of Standardization in the European Community

摘要

The European Commission and the EFTA (European Free Trade Association) Secretariat have published a wide-ranging study in three volumes entitled Legal aspects of standardisation in the Member States of the EC and EFTA. For the first time, this study offers a comparative analysis of the legal aspects of standardization on the basis of national reports relating to the Member States of the European Union and the EFTA countries.Technical standards play a vital role in structuring economic relations, whether they lay down quality and safety requirements or ensure compatibility legal systems rely increasingly on voluntary standards in support of technical regulations, helping to define baseline requirements of care and skill. In a diversified environment such as that of Europe, with different legal and standards traditions, these issues take on particular significance. Yet in general little is known about the way the different legal systems deal with standards.