Risk Perception, Culture, and Legal Change: A Comparative Study on Food Safety in the Wake of the Mad Cow Crisis / Edition 1

by Matteo Ferrari

Overview

This study explores the reasons behind the different responses of the legal systems of Europe, Japan and the USA in coping with BSE, one of the major food safety crises in recent years. Making reference to the most recent advances on risk perception that cognitive and social sciences, such as legal anthropology and sociology of law, have experimented with, Risk Perception, Culture, and Legal Change examines the role that culture plays in moulding the process of legal change. Attention is focused on the regulative frameworks implemented to guarantee the safety of the food chain against the BSE menace and on the liability responses sketched to compensate the victims of mad cow disease, showing how both these elements have been influenced by the cultural context within which they are situated.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780754678113
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/16/2009
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dr. Matteo Ferrari is a Post-doctoral Researcher in Comparative Private Law, Department of Juridical Sciences, University of Trento, Italy. He has been visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and at the School of Law, Boston University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Risk Perception, Culture, and Legal Change; Chapter 2 The Administrative Regulation of Foodstuffs; Chapter 3 Tort Liability and Food Safety; Chapter 101; Conclusions;

Editorial Reviews

'This book is a path-breaking and highly topical study of the cultural contexts of the regulation of safety.' David Nelken, Cardiff University, UK 'Why have different nations reacted so diversely to "mad cow" disease? Ferrari's answer is in fact a single, elegant solution to a host of long-standing theoretical puzzles in economics, political science, sociology, and law. His account of culture and risk will provoke debate and deepen insight in all these fields.' Dan Kahan, Yale Law School, USA

From the Publisher