Secure The Brussels Effect: How The European Union Rules The World Imagined By Anu Bradford Rendered As Manuscript

lays out a variety of examples of what she calls the Brussels Effect, the way EU standards ripple out across the world, shaping regulations far beyond its borders, and discusses both positive and negative aspects of this influence.
Surprisingly interesting, given that economics is usually a subject that bores me to tears and the writing is dry as a desert.
interesting idea, superficial execution

I would expect more from a European professor in Columbia, This seems more as an approach to explaining eu institutions, instead of explaining the reasons for the Brussels effect, Why not the dc effect, what is the reason this term does not exist As a privileged European I want to conquer the world all over again, this time without military means but rather through our legal juggernaut, an army of PhDs.


An adventure in environmental cultural imperialism, bringing the good life to the toiling masses by gentle and soft coercion,

Do you want to pay the price for my European ideological luxuries
Some useful data, but very biased, Neglects the negative effect of the "Brussels Effect" on developing countries, The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World, by Anu Bradford, is an interesting and exhaustive look at what the author terms "The Brussels Effect".
This is a play on the California Effect, whereby an intranational entity that sets high regulatory standards can affect the standards of other entities based on how private markets operate.
As a business that may export or wish to operate within the European Union or California, for that matter, adhering to, say, rigorous environmental standards is necessary to enter the market.
When the population of an entity is large, and/or desirable to trade in, the entity is able to engage in "regulatory hegemony" whereby their regulations become standard across corporate entities.
The European Union, as a political entity of many European States, has such clout, and its large and affluent consumer market is mana from heaven for most firms, not to mention the prestige of products from some of its members French cheese, Italian wine, German cars etc.
etc. . European nations have high regulatory standards, and do not adhere to the Americanized culture of perceived

small government, European regulators are active, activist and expanding, and this has an affect on any firm or organization globally that wishes to operate within its markets.
The author looks at numerous case studies, from environmental regulations, GMO products, and most interestingly, privacy and terms of service for big tech firms.
The court cases against Google, Microsoft and the like within European courts have had a massive impact on how tech firms operate.
Cookie preferences, optout options for data collection, and so much more all have their origin points within European courts and regulatory agencies, and although corporations often fight tooth and nail to avoid such regulations, once they are in place, they set them as standards.


From the perspective of a large firm, like Google, it is difficult and expensive to set up different standards for different markets.
Unifying standards across markets means that a global company need only create one standardized unit of a product, and this product could be sold in any market globally, with only small tweaks, or none at all.
The conventional wisdom is that a company is constantly seeking to find the lowest common denominator, So when standards are high in a market that is desirable to trade in, a company will examine the costs and benefits of either complying, or leaving the market.
With a market as large and affluent as the European Union, it would be difficult for a firm to leave, and may trap them out of a large portion of the global market.
Therefore, complying is the often the most cost effective choice, A knockoff benefit to this is that these standards are often applied globally, meaning many more jurisdictions can benefit or free ride off of the high standards set by European regulatory agencies.
It also means that European entities have a lot of sway within the regulatory agencies and markets of other nations or transnational bodies.
Europe has been slow to capitalize on the soft power of this result, but in recent years, has begun to set "The Brussels Effect" as foreign policy.
Trade agreements negotiated with other nations allow the EU direct policy oversight over foreign entities businesses, meaning that they can encourage and spread such regulatory pressures.
Once again, the desire to access the European market often overcomes the immediate pains of increasing or changing standards,

This book goes into exhaustive and well researched detail on the effects of the EU's "regulatory hegemony" and makes a convincing theory.
The author also looks at potential challenges to the Brussels Effect, including growing entities like China, that may not be able to set global standards fully yet, but are poised to do so in future.
The US, as a premier market of choice for most firms, is an interesting study, Certainly powerful enough to set its own standards and apply them globally and it does, it nonetheless benefits from the "offshoring" of regulatory implementation.
Government involvement in business is a political hotbed in the US, meaning regulatory agencies are often constrained by politics, and struggle to set even basic standards at a universal level.
The EU's regulatory push challenges US firms to improve their quality standards, but it also benefits US consumers with safer products, more rights in terms of electronic privacy, and better environmental standards all things that successive US administrations can claim are market driven benefits, but in reality are driven by a foreign entities regulatory policy.


This book was a fascinating case study on alternative and soft power, and how it affects other regions of the globe.
It is also a fascinating examination of regulatory standards and how they effect consumer standards, product safety, environmental regulations, and privacy standards, among other things.
A really unique perspective is present in this book, that examines regulation from a global perspective, and touches on the changing nature of trade, geopolitics and the like going into the future.
"The Brussels Effect" is one of those books where you think it's enough to read an essay about it to understand the idea: Because of the importance of the European market, the EU often succeeds in making its laws a global standard because companies voluntarily abide by them worldwide, or because EU laws become models for other countries.
Nevertheless, it is worth reading the whole book by Anu Bradford, who describes in detail the conditions that must be met for the Brussels effect to be effective and wonders whether the EU can continue to succeed in playing out its regulatory power as it has in the past.
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