Objectives
Food safety and environmental sustainability are global topics concerning many legal fields in a cross-border dialogue.
In the framework of EU law, the deepening knowledge about novel foods as well as the food law developments according to new food habits and to new techniques for producing safe food for the environment and human health, it has been leading legal scholars to a critical evaluation of food as a purely ‘nutritional tool’ and at the same time it has been fulfilling the right of consumers to ‘adequate food’. This paradigm creates in lawyers and policy makers at all levels a renewed interest on EU law; It shows an expansive force progressively including e-commerce agreements and international trade; It encourage scholars to reflect on the application and limits of the European Novel Food Regulation and on its spread in other legal systems.
The Novel Foods Regulation (which entered into force on January 1, 2018) fosters research especially regarding to edible insects. However, the relevance of the project is not limited to what appears to be a novelty in European food habits and, at the same time, a new perspective of European law harmonization. It also derives from: The analysis of the 2283/2015 EU Reg. on ‘Novel Foods’ in the framework of an intercultural legal system focused to ‘sustainability’; The search of a balance between ‘mandatory rules’ and ‘supplementary rules’ or ‘dispositive rules’ in the field of food information; A renewed attention to the interaction between international legal rules and global governance; The re-codification of food law rules according to the growing needs of foodstuffs variety; last but not least, the consideration of legal topic through anthropological and sociological analysis focused on the ‘pluralist’ and ‘secular’ society of the European legal area. According this backgrounds it will be developed knowledge for the crucial issues of the project throughout a synergy of objectives (i.e. individual research, promotion of research among younger scholars, teaching classes in degree and post-graduate courses, scientific disseminations and dialogue with stakeholders).