Technocracy and the Law Accountability, Governance and Expertise Transnational Law and Governance Series

Technocratic law and governance is under fire. Not only populist movements have challenged experts. NGOs, public intellectuals and some academics have also criticized the too close relation between experts and power. While the amount of power gained by experts may be contested, it is unlikely and arguably undesirable that experts will cease to play an influential role in contemporary regulatory regimes. This book focuses on whether and how experts involved in policymaking can and should be held accountable.

The book, divided into four parts, combines theoretical analysis with a wide variety of case studies expounding the challenges of holding experts accountable in a multilevel setting. Part I offers new perspectives on accountability of experts, including a critical comparison between accountability and a virtue-ethical framework for experts, a reconceptualization of accountability through the rule of law prism and a discussion of different ways to operationalize expert accountability. Parts I?IV, organized around in-depth case studies, shed light on the accountability of experts in three high-profile areas for technocratic governance in a European and global context: economic and financial governance, environmental/health and safety governance, and the governance of digitization and data protection.

By offering fresh insights into the manifold aspects of technocratic decisionmaking and suggesting new avenues for rethinking expert accountability within multilevel governance, this book will be of great value not only to students and scholars in international and EU law, political science, public administration, science and technology studies but also to professionals working within EU institutions and international organizations.

Foreword by Paolo Davide Farah Introduction: Breaking Taboes, Talking Accountability PART I: PERSPECTIVES ON EXPERTISE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN MULTILEVEL LAW AND GOVERNANCE 1. Conceptualizing Expert Accountability: Towards Virtue 2. Expert Accountability and the Rule of Law: Intertwinement of Normative and Functional Standards? 3. Three Dimensions of Accountability for Global Technocracy PART II: EXPERTISE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL LAW AND GOVERNANCE 4. Contesting the Monetary Policies of the European Central Bank 5. Technocratic Governance at the Centre of the European Economic and Monetary Union – Exploring the Accountability of Expert-Based Decisionmaking in the European Central Bank 6. The Re-Organization of the FATF as an International Legal Person and the Promises and Limits to Accountability PART III: EXPERTISE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, AND (FOOD) SAFETY LAW AND GOVERNANCE 7. Expertise, Trust and Accountability in Food Safety: The Evolving Role of the World Trade Organization - A Case Study of the Japan-Korea Dispute over the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster 8. Transnational Radiological Standards in Domestic Contexts 9. From Contestation to Accountability in EU Pesticides Regulation? The Case of Glyphosate 10. The Value Free Ideal of Science and Non-Epistemic Values in Regulatory Toxicology PART IV: EXPERTISE AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN DIGITIZATION AND DATA PROTECTION GOVERNANCE 11. The Concept of Accountability in the Context of the Evolving Role of Enisa in Data Protection, Eprivacy, and Cybersecurity 12. Holding Europol Accountable: The Promise and Challenges of (Hybrid) Multilevel Accountability

Alessandra Arcuri is Professor of Inclusive Global Law and Governance at the Erasmus School of Law and Erasmus Initiative Dynamics of Inclusive Prosperity, at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Florin Coman-Kund is Assistant Professor of European Union and Public International Law, Erasmus School of Law, at Erasmus University Rotterdam.