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"Preface" [2015] ELECD 1161; in Pennings, Frans; Vonk, Gijsbert (eds), "Research Handbook on European Social Security Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015) xi

Book Title: Research Handbook on European Social Security Law

Editor(s): Pennings, Frans; Vonk, Gijsbert

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782547327

Section Title: Preface

Number of pages: 8

Extract:

Preface


Editing a research handbook on European social security law is a challenge, since this
is a broad area of the law without much coherence. If we consider the body of
European social security laws it appears that there is a diverse set of rules, not only
differing fundamentally in nature but also covering a diverse range of subjects. On one
side of the scale there are grand principles which have been given legal status, such as
the right to social security as a human right. On the other side of the scale we find
technical provisions dealing with subjects like the exchange of forms between social
security institutions, the mutual recognition of certain statutory definitions of invalidity
and the sharing of costs of benefits paid to migrant workers. Furthermore, there are all
sorts of legal norms and principles that as such have nothing to do with social security
but which directly or indirectly affect the operation of social security law: competition
law, property law, the EU regime on the freedom of services, directives on the transfer
of undertaking, insurance directives, etc. Just simply describing the layout and
substance of the variety of these rules is not the idea of the present research handbook.
Instead it is our task to highlight issues that are fundamental, controversial or topical
for European social security law and therefore relevant to further research.
It is difficult to find a consensus on what is meant by the term social security. A
well-known approach is ...