Book Review : Genetically Modified Organisms: Health & Environmental Risks: A EU and WTO Perspective by Justo Corti Varela (Organismos Genéticamente Modificados y Riesgos Sanitarios y Medios Ambientales: Derecho de la Unión Europea y de la Organización Mundial del Comercio, Madrid: Reus, 2010)

This book offers a detailed and original comparative analysis of the EU and WTO risk regulatory regimes by choosing as a case in point their respective disciplines related to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It explains and compares the fundamental principles, policies, and concepts governing GMOs, within both the EU and the WTO. Yet the importance of the book goes well beyond the field of GM regulation. By investigating this controversial policy field, it examines the relationship between the regulatory competence of States in regulating risks to health and the environment, such as those generated GMOs, and the pursuit of an international free trade agenda. In so doing, it explores several themes of growing importance today such as the role of scientific expertise in political decision-making and other legitimate factors, the establishment of the appropriate level of protection deemed appropriate by a society, as well as the thorny issue of risk management principles applicable to health and environmental inspired measures